Can I really blog from email?

testing 1-2-3

Interview

Had my first ever serious interview yesterday with Pitcher Partners, and it went quite well, I think the lady said I would definitely be offered second round. I was pretty nervous, I couldnt sleep til 3, then woke up at 8, and felt panicked til I got out of bed at 9. I said a lot of stuff for which Queenie criticised me for. To how would you describe yourself, I started off saying a shy person, which probably isnt the best thing to say. Other questions they asked

- Why are you doing this degree? (I was too good for comm/law)
- What is your strengths and weaknesses (work well in a group, can lead; easily stressed)
- When have you been stressed in a group situation? (err.. never? in a group assignment i guess)
- Would you consider yourself an ambitous person? (yes, but not very)
- Do you prefer to work alone or in a group? (alone)
- What areas of accounting do you like? (hmm i cant really stand financial accounting..)
- Do you have any other offers from other firms? (No - many ppl have said I should've lied here)

As you can see.. most of my answers were pretty bad but I think they're pretty desperate for people. At the end she said she'd call me that afternoon (Friday) about when I'd come in again, but she never called me back! Hopefully she'll call me by Monday. I really really want this job, if I get it then I can stay here in the Summer can maybe go to a beach mission. I will also be paid for 6 weeks of work. And if I get it, then next year I wont have to apply to graduate positions! The firm seems quite nice and I can imagine working there permanently when I graduate. I'll know by next week I guess.

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In other news:

Josh called me a heretic for using the phrase "Xmas", and he said that if anything, it should be +mas rather than Xmas. So we went to trusty wikipedia, and apparently, X is like the greek letter X (pronouced Chi), and thats why its Xmas, not because the X looks like a cross.

I've moved from firefox to Opera, although firefox is probably a better product all round (i just want to be different). It does have a superior function in that you can go backwards and forwards, and switch between tabs just by using the mouse buttons. It also has this function where a page will keep refreshing, even if it died. So with some websites, it sets itself to refresh every 30 seconds, but if you lost connection for 2 minutes, then the site will just die, but Opera can make it refresh.

SOCM's been pretty good lately, Joshua Ng talked 3 weeks ago about where Mark fits into salvation history, and he introduced this term called prophetic foreshortening, which is a way of saying that people in the gospels during the lifetime of Jesus didnt know there was a thing called the second coming, because for them, the first coming was yet to arrive. So when the gospels use terms like the coming of the Kingdom, etc, I always read it as the 2nd coming, but I think now..usually it refers to 1st coming. For example in Luke 9:23-27:

23And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 27But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God."

I read a book when I first became a Christian that this referred to the second coming, and that Jesus was wrong. Well, just the comment that Jesus was wrong should have told me that the book was wrong, but now I see that even though for me, the kingdom of God coming sounds like 2nd coming, to them, it just meant 1st coming.

Then 2 weeks ago was about pentecost and Acts in Salvation History; that was pretty interesting too. But this week, I think it was a summary of the NT, and the second coming, and Joshua said that Jesus would return "soon". How soon is soon? Well, it is the "theological soon" - because Jesus has come for the first time, he can return anytime now. And so he asked us, what would we do if we knew Jesus would return tomorrow? (Besides ask how we could know when Jesus said that no one knows except the father) People often say, I'd quit my job and run onto the street and tell everyone about Jesus. I think this is a misunderstanding of the value of work, and the urgency of ministry at the same time. In answer to that question, Joshua said the answer should be, nothing different. Thats an interesting point - if the ministry of the gospel is so urgent, why are people doing so little of it now? Also - if people think so little of work, why dont they all quit their jobs? They shouldnt quit now, and they shouldnt quit even the day before Jesus returns, especially if you havent given 2 weeks notice.

Church Vision?

This is so funny... a new movie called "The Gospel" :

A young singer turns his back on God and his father's church when tragedy strikes. He returns years later to find the once powerful congregation in disarray. With his childhood nemesis creating a "new vision" for the church, he is forced to deal with family turmoil, career suicide, and relationship issues that send him on a collision course with redemption or destruction.

What will it be?

I'm eagerly anticipating the new announcement from Apple - apparently it will be a new version of the iPod photo. I've been reading rumours about it for several days, but it should be public knowledge in the next hour or so. Among the rumours on the net: wi-fi enabled iPod for downloading videos; a video recording device; a 32 gig flash based iPod; High Definition capabilities. My guess is that it will be a normal screen that will be video capable. It might be widescreen. The disk will remain solid state; currently only Samsung has a 32 GB flash drive, and it may not be that stable. If you are going to fit a widescreen (or just a bigger screen, which will be essential) then they have to do something about the click wheel - move to the back? flip? slide? I am sure it will come with bluetooth as standard. There are rumours that there will be a new Airport Express device announced. Perhaps the new Airport will be both wi-fi and bluetooth, so that the iPod can communicate to the Airport directly. I expect so much from Apple that I will be so disappointed if its not something totally spectacular.

Reading List

Books Read This Year:

1. According to Plan, Goldsworthy.

Books in the middle of:

1. Evangelicalism Divided, Murray
2. Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, Packer
3. The Reformation, Chadwick
4. Concise Theology, Packer
5. Know Why You Believe, Little

Books wanting to begin:

1. Fundamentalism and the Word of God, Packer
2. Both DB Knox Books
3. The Analects, Confucius
4. Know The Truth, Milne
5. In Understand Be Men, Hammond
6. At the Heart of the Universe, Jensen
7. Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, Carson
8. How Long O Lord, Carson
9. Cross Centred Ministry, Carson
10. Is the NT History, Barnett
11. Fatherhood, Payne
12. How and Why of Love, Hill
13. Tyndale Commentary of Mark, Cole

Post Challenge Conference

Challenge Conference was the most challenging conference I'd ever been to, particularly the Sunday night talk.. even though none of my issues/problems were directly addressed, the principle of living for God and not for cricket applied to lots of areas of my life. I'd been feeling down for so long but after the talks I think I am reminded to trust God a lot more, not to chase after meaningless things. Recently I'd been rejected for all these internships etc and thats been pretty depressing. The marks for my mid sessions has been pretty bad.. but its ok, not anything important.

I particularly remember Joshua’s challenge on Friday night about desire; whether we have the desire to see others saved, and that we think we are not godly enough, then just BE godly enough, none of us are perfect, and we can all change by the spirit. Pete’s talks on Jonah of course, reminded me of God’s compassion, and to really fear the Lord. Phillip’s talks were the most challenging, firstly for me to be more selfless and willing to talk to strangers, secondly to be less worldly and just remember for the reason for the day that we’re in, and thirdly to stand up as a leader. During lunch on Monday someone encouraged me to be a leader, but I still feel like at CCC, there’s not much opportunity for me to, because a lot of it is institutionalised.

But on Tuesday night I had dinner with Simon and he has a great idea for encouraging more people at CCC, particular in the area of their quiet times. Everyone knows that none of us are really reading the bible, and even though I read it, I know I don’t read it as often as I want to. And when I do, I feel like I’m only doing it in order to gain more knowledge. So if someone asked me.. Why should I read the bible, I don’t know the answer… I wouldn’t wanna say… I think more knowledge, I want to know more.. The textbook answer should be, so I can know get better, and love him more, but I dont really read the bible with that approach, and I don’t know how to start.