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Jeff posted this on his blog, and I think it’s fitting for the day.

OK . . . just posted the Ecclesiastes outline.

Ecclesiastes is one of those books that has been maligned to the max. But Tim does a good job of putting things into perspective.

Check out the outline of Ecclesiastes.

Recently Tim sent me an article he wrote a few years back. He’s updated it a little, and now it’s ready for publication! The topic? The Sabbath. Do we, as Christians, need to keep it? Should we be meeting on Saturday instead of Sunday?

Read the article here.

As Christians, Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection remain fixed in our minds. But as Good Friday and Easter approach, it’s good to remember the price Jesus paid for us. Mark has written some thought-provoking poems reminding us of Jesus’ sacrifice.

The Servants Way
Prelude to the Cross
A Lamb Among Wolves

Thanks you Jesus! And thank you, Mark, for the reminders.

I’ve just posted a new outline on truthsaves. It’s more than an outline, as most of them are (if you’ve been checking them out). It’s also a brief overview, along with a little historical information. This one covers the book of Proverbs. Don’t forget, we also have outlines of all the books of the New Testament, as well as outlines of all the books of the Old Testament up to Proverbs, as well as Daniel.

Check out the Proverbs outline.

As I read II Corinthians 7 the other night, the term “godly grief,” really caught me off guard. I find myself grieving, often, over things like my working conditions, failures I’ve experienced, the disappearance of my cat, my own state of mind . . . but my grief can hardly be categorized at “godly.” See what Paul says.

⁸ For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it - though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.
⁹ As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
¹⁰ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
II Corinthians 7:8-10 (ESV)

I sat still and thought about it for a while. Do I feel grief when I’ve said or done something that might mislead another? Do I grieve when I sin? Do I feel sorrow when I let Jesus down, when I displease Him?

Sin should appall us and produce godly grief leading to repentance. Worldly grief results from loss of earthly possessions or disappointments unrelated to God or His Son. We need to learn to throw off worldly sorrows; we are not of this world. The things that the world finds important we should regard as unnecessary, trivial, futile. If events unrelated to God produce grief in us, we should be wary, as Paul warns us that worldly grief produces death.

What grieves you?

We just posted a new article on truthsaves. I had a hard time naming it . . . but I called it, “Life is Falling Apart.” It’s the mini-story of a lady who wrote us asking for advice on how to connect with God. She has been suffering through a lot of pain. I think we all go through times in life where God seems distant. Our faith feels emotionless. How do we get through these times? Tim shares some good insights, some basics of Christianity that we (I, anyway) often forget.

Check out the article.

I think I promised to give you some ideas on open source chat clients. So, I’ll keep my word. Pidgin runs on multiple platforms (aren’t you Microsoft haters getting tired of thanking me?), accesses all the major IM networks (even simultaneously if you’d like), and supports many common features of the major chat clients.

Also, as I’ve mentioned, it’s free. Long live Open Source! OK, that sounded stupid.

Pidgin doesn’t support voice or video chat; that’s why I don’t use it. If you’re after those features, there’s another open source program for you. I’ll talk about that in the near future.

Download Pidgin here.

I just posted an outline (by Tim) of Psalms. It explains how the Psalms are really a set of five books.

Check out the outline and overview of Psalms.

The one verse that really stands out for me in this Psalm is verse 3.

³ They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

What in the world does that mean? Am I incapable of doing anything good? Of course there’s the concept of universal depravity, but I want to know what this means for me. I want to understand the implication in my own life. Can I do good? What does this mean? Can’t I buy a mocha for the lady that works next to me that irritates me beyond belief? Isn’t that being good? Can’t I help an old lady fix her car tire? Isn’t that being good? Well, in our understanding of the word, of course it is. And anyone can do things like that. I think, in this context, the word “good” must mean something other than what I think it means.

Jesus said,

“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
Mark 10:18 (ESV)

Oh great. Now, not only do I not know what “good” means, but nobody can be good but God. Yet I’m called to be perfect.

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (ESV)

So, let’s see what we have here so far. Nobody is good. Not even one person. So I must not know what being good means, because I do nice things for people all the time. So, I feel like I’m good, but based on this Psalm, I’m not. Then Jesus reiterates that in Matthew when he says nobody is good but God. So obviously I’m not good. It appears our modern meaning of “good” must mean something other than what most people think it means. But regardless of what it means, I’m called to be perfect, and being perfect has to have something in common with being good, which I’m not. What’s the heck is going on?

A few verses after Jesus says that nobody is good but God, the disciples ask Him a question and He answers. The answer gives me some hope.

²⁶ And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”
²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
Mark 10:26, 27 (ESV)

The disciples didn’t understand either. They wanted to know how in the world anyone could get to heaven if being good was impossible. And Jesus made it clear that with Him, all things are possible.

My conclusion is that I (along with everyone) was born incapable of being good. Sure, I can do nice things and be pleasant, but I can’t be good in God’s eyes, because He’s perfect. He’s the only one who is truly good. But through Jesus (since he makes impossible things possible), I have the ability to have a relationship with a holy, perfect God - even One who despises my sinful nature.

Now you can have all the Bible references on your website point to the Bible Gateway. You don’t have to go back and re-do your site . . . just add a bit of code just above your in your website template and you’re good to go. It’s a free tool, of course. Every reference you have will automatically point to the Bible Gateway (an online Bible) using the version of your choice. Additionally (and optionally), you can add a small icon by each reference. It doesn’t matter if you have abbreviations as your references; this tool will recognize them as well. You can also list references like this: Num. 6:24-26; 11:10; 23; 22:34; 24:17 . . . and it recognizes them (unlike the solution I’m using for this blog - maybe I’ll switch things up). What an amazing tool! I’m going to implement it on truthsaves as soon as I get all the outlines pages updated with proper references. Unfortunately, when formatting the outlines, I just put chapter numbers next to things (and sometimes just verse numbers), and this tool can’t transform single numbers into links (obviously). So it’ll take a while to get everything straight on truthsaves. I tested it tonight, though, and it was absolutely amazing! All my references, all over the site, magically appeared as links to the Bible Gateway online Bible, using the ESV (English Stadard Version). There’s also a cool little plugin for Wordpress blogs. I’m using a different solution for this blog, but the Bible Reference Tagger works in a similar manner and has more options.
Get the Bible Reference Tagger here.

RSSOwl does lots of things I don’t really know about, so I won’t give it a thorough review, but I will say it’s a pretty sweet newsreader. It’s the first (or second) one I’ve ever tried, and it does what I want it to do. I have my friends’ blogs bookmarked, as well as my favorite news sources, and it’s nice to to have all those sources readily available. It also displays a reminder when a new post, comment, or article is posted.

It’s relatively easy to figure out, although adding additional features leaves a bit to be desired. I tried installing a component that integrates the Mozilla browser into the program and it was a nightmare. I never did get it to work. The documentation seems a bit disorganized and random as well. Like, for instance, what the heck are news bins and where do I find information on it?

But forget all that. Just download it, install it, set the preferences, and start adding news sources. It’s simple and fun. And I’m finding it’s a program I can’t live without, because I check many blogs regularly, and now I can check them in half the time. I can check posts and comments easily; they’re all listed in an easy-to-read format. And now, thanks to the auto-reminder, I never miss a post or a comment.

One more thing I like; it integrates easily into Firefox. Anytime you click on an RSS feed link, it automatically opens RSSOwl and adds the source for you.

Oh, and one more thing . . . being Java-based, this program runs on all platforms. It’s yet another gift for you Microsoft-haters.

Download RSSOwl here.