What I Learned Today [WILT]

[WILT] How to Pray to Our Dad

Good things to keep in mind - always!

clipped from blog.marshillchurch.org How to Pray to Our Dad: Sermon Notes, Luke #47 Look at children with a father who adores them. Through Jesus’ prayer we also learn that our Father is holy, our Father is a king, our Father is generous, our Father forgives sins, and our Father leads well. Our Father hears and answers every prayer. Jesus comes along, and on 60 occasions says, “Father.” And they actually realize the magnitude of this statement and they seek to put him to death, saying, “You keep calling God your Father. You’re making yourself equal with God.” Which, as the second member of the Trinity, he was and is. And so Jesus teaches us, “Hey, don’t just listen to me pray to the Father. You can do it, too.” This is a great invitation. And of all the words that could have been chosen to reveal to us who God is, “Father” is the one that was chosen. The more you get to know God as Father, the easier it will be to talk to your Dad.

[WILT] 10 Things Forgiveness Is Not

Yup, that pretty much all applies to me!

clipped from blog.marshillchurch.org 10 Things Forgiveness Is Not many Christians do not rightly ascertain what forgiveness truly is and is not, and so I’ve got a long list for you 1. Forgiveness is not approving or diminishing sin. It’s not saying, “Well, it’s okay. Nobody’s perfect. 2. Forgiveness is not enabling sin. You can forgive someone without enabling their sin, participating in it. 3. Forgiveness is not denying a wrongdoing. Forgiveness is not denying that you were sinned against. 4. Forgiveness is not waiting for an apology. you forgive them before they apologize. 5. Forgiveness is not forgetting. it’s not like God has no idea what you did yesterday. He forgets nothing. It means that he chooses to see us as new creations and he chooses to work for a new future. 6. Forgiveness is not ceasing to feel the pain. It’s okay for it to bother you. 7. Forgiveness is not a onetime event. 8. Forgiveness is not neglecting justice. 9. Forgiveness is not trusting. 10. Forgiveness is not reconciliation.

[WILT] The 8 Questions to ask before Speaking

Aimed at those giving sermons, but applicable to any public speaking situation.

clipped from worship.com 8 Questions to ask before Speaking or Teaching These questions are posted in my Bible and I see them and answer them every time before I get up to speak and while preparing my message for the week.  These questions keep me grounded and focused on what it really is God is having me do.  Am I worried about what people think or about what God thinks about my message?   Do I truly love the people Im speaking to? Am I accurately presenting the message? Am I depending on the Holy Spirit’s power or my own? Am I more in love with God when I’m teaching, or when I’m in private? Have I applied this message to my own life? Will this message draw attention to me or to God? Do the people really need this?

Today I Learned How To do some PHP magic

I can fiddle my way around PHP and make things work, that is, as long as it is someone else’s code.

Today I was struggling with a WordPress Plugin that refused to behave when I wanted to save changes in it’s Admin panel.

The code just would not behave.

Possibly an issue with the current version?

Anyway, I tracked down the code element.

action="<?php echo $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . '?page=' . basename(__FILE__); ?>&updated=true">

For one thing, this is a security issue, so I updated it to this:

action="<?php echo admin_url( 'admin.php?page=' . plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) ); ?>&updated=true">

But that failed. After 30 mins of madness and frustration, I dropped the “plugin_” from “basename” and all was good.

action="<?php echo admin_url( 'admin.php?page=' . basename( __FILE__ ) ); ?>&updated=true">

What does it mean? I have no idea, I just know it works, and I learned it from Lester Chan. Thanks, Lester!

WILT: How To Import Books on CD into iTunes for your iPod or iPhone

WILT=What I Learned Today - and today I thought I knew all there was to know about iTunes, but nope, not so.

Today I learned how to import Books on CD (you can get them at the library) into iTunes. Sure, you can import ANY audio CD into iTunes, even Books on CD.

But they are a mish-mash of endless tracks that clutter up your iPod and are generally hard to navigate. Heck, one chapter might have 6 tracks.

I'd prefer those 6 tracks to be an all-in-one chapter - thankfully, iTunes can do just that.

No need to re-invent the wheel, here are the sites that helped teach me something today.

• Michael Alderete’s "How to Import Audio CD audiobooks into iTunes"
• Stan Brown's tutorial (good links for adding Chapter Marks)

My only comment is, with iPods having plenty of storage, I would NOT bump down the bit-rates as the tutorials recommend. I tried one chapter like that, it sounded yucky. Go with the good 128-256 bit-rate.

Thanks guys!