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A message by Matt Chandler about how the gospel is not just for “sinners” but for religious, “righteous” people as well. We are all in need of continued repentance and to trust in Christ alone.
Pastor Mark Driscoll turns up the heat a bit for the guys. This is his second message on the topic of men and women’s roles in marriage. This is obviously not an exhaustive message on the topic, and is not intended to be a systematic theology of biblical manhood. But it is a message that men, including myself, need to hear. In a few words, he is calling for guys to grow up and be men, exposing some of the lies and challenges that we commonly face in today’s culture.
Please give this one a listen.
Pastor Mark Driscoll … what to say about this guy. I thank God for Mark and for God’s continuing sanctification in his life. He has particular gifts and style that are not appreciated by all, but in his context apparently God is blessing his ministry. In particular, I am impressed by his ability to reach young men for Jesus.
In these two message, Marriage and Women and Marriage and Men, he is speaking about the roles of men and women in marriage. He speaks to the women first, and this is that message. Just to prepare you, the perspective he is sharing is on the conservative end of the spectrum, but he is biblical. His wife joins him at the end for Q&A.
Matt Chandler’s second message, from the 2008 Text & Context conference.
I first became aware of Matt Chandler (no relation to NBC’s “Chandler” from “Friends”) by listening to the 2008 Text & Content Conference, via the Resurgence podcast. In these two messages, I got to know some of where Matt is coming from in his perspective on the Church and ministry. He’s very entertaining, easy to listen to, and these two messages are packed with interesting and insightful antidotes. He is pastor of The Village Church, and their podcast quickly became one of my favorites.
Matt Chandler — “Preaching the Gospel from the Center of the Evangelical World”
Paint.NET: A graphics editor for the rest of us. There are several free image editors around, but this one takes the cake as far as I’m concerned. Cheaper than Photoshop. (Cheap as in free.) Not as clumsy and ugly as GIMP.
It doesn’t have all one million tools and capabilities as the aforementioned, but it does what I need it to, and makes it easy to do so. Layered images? Check. Save as JPG, PNG, GIF, etc, with compression quality options? Check. Color adjustment tools? Check. Easy to resize and crop? Check. If you are looking for a very capable image editor tool, this may be it.
As the .NET in the name may imply, this app is Windows only and will stay that way. Bummer.
One brief rant: I’m frustrated I can’t seem to find a decent free / shareware editor for OS X. There was a day when the mac had some of the best graphics software, but those days seem to be long gone. Tried Seashore. It’s a small step above MS Paint. GIMP on OS X is fairly terrible (X11, need I say more?). Even bought Pixelmator. Pretty interface, but no “Crop to selection?” You gotta be kidding me! Pixelmator also seemed to have trouble keeping my colors straight. When working on web images, the color profile would always look slightly different after I saved with Pixelmator. Drove me crazy. Never had any other image program do such a thing. Makes Pixelmator unusable for me. Wasted $50 :-(.
Anyway, back to Paint.net. Love it. So check it out. http://www.getpaint.net
Also, if you’re a developer, make sure to install the ICO plugin, which makes paint.net a full featured ICO file (Windows ICON) editor. (For example, to create your favicon.ico file.) Get the ICO plugin here: Icon/Cursor Paint.NET Plug-in.  Then save the .dll file to the Program Files/Paint.net/FileTypes folder.
ING DIRECT is my new favorite bank. It’s an online-only bank, and that suits me just fine, I prefer banking online. Allows them to offer savings accounts at rates 4X the national average. Their website makes saving money really straightforward, money transfers are free, and lots of other nice features. I recently wrote a short review for ING’s savings accounts.
This post is about ING DIRECT’s unique Easy Orange Mortgage. I’ve had this mortgage for 6 months now and am quite pleased. They are conservative about who they lend to, so if you don’t have good credit or don’t have 25% down payment / equity in the home, don’t bother. They are conservative so they can pass the savings on to you, in the form of a very low interest rate, easily a full 1.00% less than the average 30-yr mortgage, and significantly lower rate than most 5-yr ARMs as well.
The mortgage is sort of a hybrid between a 5-yr ARM and a 30-yr fixed mortgage. Similar to a balloon/reset mortgage, for those who know what that is. Here’s the skinny (as of this posting):
The Easy Orange Mortgage
- Low Rates – You get a low 5-year fixed rate with payments that are based on repaying over 30 years.
- Rate Renew – No need to refinance and pay full closing costs. You can relock your rate and extend your fixed rate period for another 5 years at the Easy Orange rate offered at that time – all for one payment which is equal to 2 of your bi-weekly payments (maximum payment of $2,500).
- Self Service = Low Cost – We can offer low rates by keeping our costs low. So we ask for a little help from you. All applications are done quick and easy on ingdirect.com and all payments are done electronically. You’ll save money, we’ll save some trees in the process.
- Low Closing Costs – Unlike other banks, we don’t charge application fees or points.
- Bi-weekly Payments – You make electronic payments every two weeks instead of once a month. By doing so, you’ll pay your mortgage off sooner than 30 years.
Just a few comments about my own experience with this mortgage. ING DIRECT had their act together at the closing. Everything went as planned. I had a lot of questions as I prepared for this mortgage, and phone support throughout the process was great. I spent very little (typically none) time on hold, and the associates on the phone were friendly and knowledgeable. And every time I spoke with someone who clearly spoke and understood English… you have no idea how nice this is, and how much faster a support phone call can be with someone who understands what you’re talking about the first time. Probably the best phone support experience I’ve ever had. Granted, other companies have set a pretty low bar.
Cons: there is one thing I don’t like about this mortgage compared to most other lenders. They don’t escrow. That means you pay the property/school tax bills yourself. I imagine it is all part of keeping their costs low? It is a bit inconvenient, but isn’t a big problem for me to write a few checks a year on my own.
You really should check out the Easy Orange mortgage at ING DIRECT to get more details and see if it is right for you. If not, they do have other, more standard ARM mortgages available, and fantastic savings accounts. You can click on the above banner to begin an ING DIRECT savings account, then click here to get details on the Easy Orange Mortgage.
Update (Feb. 2010): In January, ING’s mortgage rates dropped 0.5% since my mortgage began, so I paid to do the rate renew. The cost to renew at the lower rate was 2 bi-weekly payments (basically 1 month’s payment), but I did the math, and with 0.5% lower rate, I will save much more than that over the 5 years. I was a bit nervous because before I put the paperwork in the mail, the rate went up a bit, but they stayed honest and everything went smoothly as expected.
Update (July 2010):Â By the way, use this promo link to open a new savings account with ING DIRECT, and you can earn $25. Just open it with a minimum of $250. That’s an instant 10% return! You’re welcome!
Very nice greeting cards. We love the bold colored designs and the scripture references. Everyone loves getting an old-fashioned hand-written encouragement note or thank you card via the snail mail. These beautiful cards make great gifts, too.
http://mariahwestdesigns.etsy.com
Refrigerator magnets. Everyone’s got ’em. You gotta stick up the occasional picture of your niece & nephew, or a free car wash coupon. Or maybe a quote from your favorite poet or Napoleon Dynamite.
Most magnets are frustratingly weak. And usually ugly. There’s two things I’m looking for in a good refrigerator magnet: 1) Strong enough to hold up at least 5 receipts/coupons/pictures with a single magnet. 2) Not ugly.
These are the only magnets that fit the bill for me. They look like pushpins for a cork board, they are small, but they are the strongest magnets I have ever used. Get them as a gift for that refrigerator display artist in your family.
You can even get one free in the mail!
Basically this is a list of some of my favorite stuff. Gifts, products, things that I like that make my life more pleasant, usually in a small way. But little things can add up and make a difference.
So far, I’m tracking 3 categories:
1) Stuff. As in physical stuff or products/services that are useful.
2) Software. I’m a programmer geek, so my list is mostly along those lines. Programming or productivity tools are mostly what I’ll link to.
3) Audio podcast. I listen to a lot of audio. Driving to work, doing the dishes, painting a room; these are all excellent opportunities to fire up the iPod and listen to a message. I usually try to redeem the time by listening to a sermon or conference message from some of my favorite teachers/pastors. Like John Piper, Matt Chandler, RC, CJ, or “Rev Kev” DeYoung. Follow if you wanna know what I’m listening to and being impacted by.
