becoming

Does your desktop look like this?

Ask Cc and you will know that I am far from an organized person. But one thing I really can’t stand is to have a messy desktop, or a messy office. I don’t know how people do it, but I can hardly think with tons of papers or stuff pile up my desk, let alone think creatively.

Lifehacker is doing us a great favor by giving us the top 10 home office hacks. Seriously guys, get organized! I am telling you that many of the suggestions there are really helpful and practical. They are something which I have been doing.

[link: lifehacker]

記念耶酥被殺，釘身十字架前一星期，稱為「聖週」的時間即將開始。英國的Nick Page 製作了一個讀經表。以馬可福音作為藍圖，從中選取每一天相關的經文，以供閱讀。

This is a day by day guide to Holy Week, with the relevant passages from the gospels, and a suggested timetable for reading them.

The idea is that you can follow the events of the Longest Week by ‘reading along’ day by day. So, if an event happened early in the morning, that’s when you do the reading.

It’s designed to be folded to A5 so it’s handier for storing in Bibles, etc.

[link: nickpage.co.uk | HT: maggidawn]

——

另外，AFC也在這週為我們預備了一個靈修體驗：8 days。大力推薦！

Most Interesting Bookstores of the World

See more here.

[HT: inhabitatiodei.com]

在上學的途中，

Jocelyn突然想起已經許久沒有回校的V。

「或者V唔再o番來了。」她輕描淡寫地說。

這許久不見的同學，女兒常為她的不在，想過不同，卻都是短暫的理由。

我向車內的倒後鏡望，第一次看見她天真的面上，那若有所思的神情：

「而家得M，R，和S一齊玩了…」

那是一個落寞的神情。

那一刻，爸爸為妳，就這樣經歷了人生的「愛別離」，

心也碎了。

是的。那天看見妳最要好的同學，她的名字從班房中的名單上刪除了，我也不知怎樣對妳說。

沒有解釋、沒有道別。

總覺得，像妳這個年紀，這不是妳應該有的經歷。

不應該。

我沒有說話，

只有心裡想：

「女兒，這就是生命中的無常和荒謬。」

妳懂嗎？

作爸爸的，

情願

妳不懂。

「多倫多華人福音教牧同工團契」決定邀請中華福音神學院、天道神學院戴德生中心、 OMF及 MSI等機構一起於四月11日(週六)上午10時假「華基」愛正堂100 Acadia為主的忠僕戴紹曾牧師舉行追思禮拜。加拿大華福將負責在聚會時收自由奉獻，交MSI已經成立之 “Taylor Educational Fund” (泰勒基金)，本聚會為中/英雙語，恭請各界人士參加。

The TCEMF (Toronto Chinese Evangelical Ministerial Fellowship) has just passed the motion in this afternoon Committee’s meeting to organize a special memorial service to commemorate Dr. James H Taylor III on April 11, 2009 Saturday at 10:00 am using the sanctuary of Toronto Chinese Community Church at 100 Acadia Ave., Markham, ON. This is in conjunction with a few other Christian organizations with strong ties with Dr. Taylor’s past ministries like China Evangelical Seminary, Tyndale Seminary Hudson Taylor Centre, OMF and MSI.  The service will be in English and Mandarin. It will open to all.

We have also decided to make a special free-will offering designated for “Taylor Educational Fund” to be sent and administered by MSI. We request that CCCOWE Canada to be the one to do collection, issue receipts and the transfer of fund.

羅牧的話：

…屬靈操練的作用，是在神面前放下自己，擺上自己。可是，有些人的屬靈經驗，是封閉在自我的感受中，而不是求上帝改變他。約拿做了個「救命」(life saving prayer)的禱告，但不是個「改變生命」的禱告(life changing prayer)。如果只為自己感覺良好，自我靈性提昇而禱告，那些禱告也不能改變一個人。

是的。就看看我們常說的「主禱文」，你以為那是「救命」的禱告，還是「改變生命」的禱告？

我相信是後者。

[Read more]

From NT Wright’s response to BW3, on Tom’s earlier book “Surprised by Hope“:

BW3: …Help us connect the dots between our future hope in Kingdom come, and our present work. Is it a mere foreshadowing of Kingdom come, or an actual foretaste, and so part of that work? Does what we do now, get perfected when Jesus and the Kingdom come in full? What does it mean to be co-laborers with Christ and why should that give us hope in the present as well as for the future?

Wright: We are not building the kingdom by our own efforts, no. The Kingdom remains God’s gift, new creation, sheer grace. But, as part of that grace already poured out in Jesus Christ and by the Spirit, we are building FOR the kingdom. I use the image of the eleventh-century stonemason, probably illiterate, working away on one or two blocks of stone according to the orders given to him. He isn’t building the Cathedral; he is building FOR the Cathedral. When the master mason/architect gathers up all the small pieces of stone at which people have been working away, he will put them into the great edifice which he’s had in mind all along and which he alone can build — but FOR WHICH we can and must build in the present time. Note 1 Corinthians 3, the Temple-building picture, and the way it relates directly to 1 Cor 15.58: what you do in the Lord is NOT IN VAIN, because of the resurrection.

I have absolutely no idea how it might be that a great symphony or painting, or the small act of love and gentleness shown to an elderly patient dying in hospital, or Wilberforce campaigning to end the slave trade, or the sudden generosity which makes a street beggar happy all day — how any or all of those find a place in God’s eventual kingdom. He’s the architect, not me. He has given us instructions on the little bits of stone we are meant to be carving. How he puts them together is his business.

[Read the whole thing here]

And may I add here a passage from Calvin’s Institutes, book III, chapter 16, section 1：

Do you wish, then, to attain righteousness in Christ? You must first possess Christ; but you cannot possess him without being made partaker in his sanctification, because he cannot be divided into pieces [I Cor 1:13]. Since, therefore, it is solely by expending himself that the Lord gives us these benefits to enjoy, he bestows both of them at the same time, the one never without the other. Thus it is clear how true it is that we are justified not without works yet not through works, since in our sharing in Christ, which justifies us, sanctification is just as much included as righteousness.