John Piper on Hell (and more)

John Piper wrote a brief piece last week addressing how willingly people go to Hell. It was a good piece - a reminder that Hell isn't just a not-nice place - it is worse than the worst thing we could imagine, and no one will want to be there.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

...when a person chooses against God and, therefore, de facto chooses hell—or when he jokes about preferring hell with his friends over heaven with boring religious people—he does not know what he is doing. What he rejects is not the real heaven (nobody will be boring in heaven), and what he “wants” is not the real hell, but the tolerable hell of his imagination.

...What sinners want is not hell but sin. That hell is the inevitable consequence of unforgiven sin does not make the consequence desirable. It is not what people want—certainly not what they “most want.” Wanting sin is no more equal to wanting hell than wanting chocolate is equal to wanting obesity. Or wanting cigarettes is equal to wanting cancer.

Helpful reminder for believers of the absolute necessity and urgency of preaching the Gospel to those who are perishing. Those who, Jesus said, are condemned already (John 3:18).

Also in the John Piper vein, the audiobook for Desiring God is available at Christian Audio for free this month. Several of his other audiobooks are on sale for $5 each through Nov. 21. Here's the link for all this good stuff.

What is NaNoWriMo?

What is NaNoWriMo?

A) A glorious and exultant writing experience.
B) One of the most hideous tortures invented by human beings.
C) A month-long contest in November wherein the challenge is to write a 50,000 word story.
D) All of the above.

This post is for Neil Shay, mostly, in answer to his question.

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It is the brainchild of one Chris Baty, and happens every November. It's one of the craziest things you might undertake in your life which doesn't involve physical bodily injury.

The goal is to write 50,000 words of fiction, between midnight November 1st and midnight November 30th. That's it in its simplest form.

Your writing style changes when you write to a deadline like this. You forget about spelling every word correctly, grammar goes out the window, and (for many people) even those blind alleys you take when you're doing the creative thing end up staying in.

It's rather hard to describe. Baty has written a book, and even that really doesn't begin to cover it. At the end of the day (and I know it's cliche), you really do have to experience it for yourself.

2008 was my first real experience with it (I conked out in 2007 after a couple thousand words). It was, as I said in the opening, both a glorious, exultant experience and at the same time hideous torture.

And even if I thought I could psych myself up again for it, I just don't know where I would find the time. It's possible, but unlikely. But I will still probably sign up, and still root for others, if I know they are participating.

For more info on NaNoWriMo, you can visit NaNoWriMo.org. 

Obligatory Blog Post - September 2009

I had a post halfway written, but unfortunately, it was killed because it was in an unsaved buffer (ah, the joys of learning a new software program), so instead I'm settling for notifying everyone that I've added a countdown timer to the right-hand column of the blog which gives the time until NaNoWriMo 2009 starts.

I doubt I'll be doing NaNo this year--too busy--but I think one of the kids is going to do it. And I'll be happy to root for anyone who does try it.

P.S. Here's a link to the suggested word counts for students doing the Youth Writing Program.

Assigning Drive Letters in XP

I had previously assigned a drive letter to my thumbdrive in XP to help facilitate syncing files. That letter somehow got reassigned.

This page let me fix it. Now my files are synced again.

Special on John Calvin audiobooks @ Christianaudio.com

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birthday, Christianaudio.com has put three of their Calvin titles on sale for $2.98 each for downloads. (The fourth title from this search is a free John Piper sermon on John Calvin.)

I picked up Calvin for Armchair Theologians, and have listened to about an hour of it. The narration is excellent - very easy to follow. In fact, I may review it later in more depth, but for know, I'll settle for saying that because the fellow reading the book has an English accent, it adds a bit of gravitas to the work that I don't think is in the original.

Act quickly if you're interested. The sale only runs through July 11th.

In Honor of Michael Jackson's Funeral

I'm posting a link to "Don't Wanna Waste My Life" by Lecrae.

Rearrange Windows Taskbar Buttons

I have been wanting something like this for a long time now. It's a small utility that lets you rearrange the buttons on your taskbar. Very handy, small, and standalone.

From Elias Fotinis.

Facebook

Ok, so I finally caved, and I'm on Facebook. So far, my impression of Facebook is that it's great for people who like the social interactions of blogs but without all the time-consuming reading and writing required.

Which, given the fact that I'm now averaging about two posts a month, prolly makes it perfect for me.

Death of a Non-celebrity

In the midst of the "notable" deaths that occurred last week, there was one which will not receive much attention. A small plane crashed. The lone passenger, the pilot, was killed--burned beyond recognition.

Authorities identify pilot in Southern Utah crash
Published: Thursday, July 2, 2009 9:55 p.m. MDT

The Washington County Sheriff's Office identified the man who died Tuesday in a small plane crash as Gary Logan, 54, of Las Vegas.

Logan was flying from North Las Vegas Airport to Cedar City when his single engine plane went down and crashed at Utah Hill, near the Utah-Arizona border.

He was supposed to arrive at his destination by 11 a.m. Tuesday. The Cedar City airport alerted the sheriff's office that a plane might have gone down in their area when he still hadn't arrived by 2 p.m. The Civil Air Patrol located the crash site a half hour later, said Chief Deputy Rob Tersigni.

There were no other passengers on the plane. The National Transportation Safety Board began its investigation of the accident Wednesday.

— Michael R. McFall

Gary Logan was a long-time friend of our family. He loved to golf, and was one of Gramps's favorite golfing buddies. He came all the way to Phoenix to see Grandma and Grandpa when they were both recovering from illnesses a year ago.

His family have our sympathy at their loss.

Jesus asked a crowd once, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37, ESV). We would all do well to dwell on that question while we are alive, because death will come for each of us. Fame, money, and looks desert us, even in this life; they are certainly of no value in the life to come. I don't know if any of the celebrity triumvirate which passed on last week knew Jesus as Savior; some have hopes, but I have my doubts.

In contrast, Gary knew Jesus as his savior, and he came to know him in part as a result of my grandpa's witness. Grandpa preceded him in death by just a few months. I'm thankful that we can rejoice that they are truly in a better place, and we will have the opportunity to see them again. That is real hope - a hope that comes out of a personal relationship with the savior, Jesus Christ.

Under the Wire

Ok, so my blog stats have hit an all-time low this past week, and I'm in danger of having nearly missed another month of blogging. So in order to stem the tide, I'll at least throw something out there before July 1st.

The blog has had to take 2nd fiddle to several things, not the least of which was work. I took and passed my test for my certified general appraiser's license, which means that, beginning tomorrow, I am officially licensed to work as an appraiser (previously I was a trainee).

I was quite concerned about passing the test, and I give God at least as much credit as myself for getting me to this point, because He has intervened at several points along the road to achieving this milestone.

More later.