donnesia

Update on House

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:03:00 +0000

The bank did their appraisal a week ago, and I got the results Wednesday. I had to submit a few more bank statements, and they have submitted my application to SONYMA on Friday. As far as I can tell, that's the last step - now I'm just waiting for SONYMA to approve it.

SONYMA is a program that NY State does for first-time home buyers. They will pay 3% of the closing costs (minimum $3,000) and you'll get a low interest rate (currently 5.75%). I was very glad my bank told me about this program - I went to a local credit union last year, and they don't participate in the program, so they did not tell me about it. I was very glad that I did not go with them this year!

Tips on Buying Your First Home

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:27:00 +0000

I am going through the process of purchasing my first house, and I have learned first-hand several do and do not's.

1. Look at several houses before you bid. Unless there is a house that you've been eyeing for weeks and months, and it's suddenly come up for sale, it's probably not the best idea to look at one house and then put in a bid. I know with myself I was very desperate to get out of my parent's house, and so I bid on the first house I looked at. I had not looked at any other houses before and so I really had nothing to compare it with. Well, the house was was private and had lots of room (a perfect spot for my library) but it had some major structural issues and many minor problems. I bid on it, and I had it inspected and it was then I realized just how bad it was. The inspector even told me that he would not even pay a fraction of the price for the house. In hindsight, I wouldn't have been happy there even if there were not any problems with the house.

2. Look at every part of the house. In the first house there was one room in the basement that I was not able to look at the first two times I looked at the house - it was filled with trash. While that should have been a red flag (if these people are so dirty that they use a room in the basement for trash - there were probably 30 bags in it - what else did they do?), I didn't think too much of it. We made them remove the trash for the inspection, and found a huge structural problem in that part of the basement - in fact, if I had seen that to begin with, I would never have put in my bid. Total cost for that lesson: $300 for the inspection, plus a lot of wasted time.

3. Don't only use Realtor.com. I've found that website to be very innaccurate. I don't know how many properties I got all excited about, gave them to my realtor to find out, that one sold a week ago, or that one closed yesterday, or that one already has an accepted offer. That site is not updated very often. I've had lots of luck using Zillow.com, which also puts them on a map so you can quickly see general locations (very helpful if you are looking for a specific area - I was looking for something rural). If you find a property you're interested in, google the address - you'll probably find other sites with that listing with more info. I know many listings on Realtor.com had a few pictures, but on another site (often Zillow) there were more pictures.

4. Don't say no becuase of one picture. Several houses I looked at online didn't look like anything I would want, but they were in my price range so I went and looked anyway. One of them I actually really liked, but I never would have thought so from the picture. Unfortunately, it was a bad neighborhood.

5. Take your neighborhood into account. Is this someplace you want to live? I like my privacy, and I can't stand hearing the neighbor's radio blaring when I'm outside relaxing. I also don't like constant traffic. One house I found looked nice, but it was on the corner of a busy intersection - that would drive me crazy. Someone else might not care.

6. Talk to others about the area. A friend of my dad lived down the road from the house in #4 above, and said he'd all the time he'd wake up in the middle of the night to find a bunch of people swimming in his pool! Several other people told me that area was a bad place to live as well.

Rummage Sale

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:20:00 +0000

It's time for the annual rummage sale. I've always made out very well at these - the last two years I've gotten over $200 each year! (I always have tons of junk). This year I did not have as much to put out as I previously did, but I still put out quite a bit. I made $27.50 in the first 1/2 hour, hopefully the rest of the day goes just as well. I moving into my own home in about a month, so the less junk I have the better.

Dropbox - A Really Cool Computer App

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:03:00 +0000

I came across Dropbox tonight and it is just awesome. I have two computers - a laptop and a desktop. Dropbox allows me to easily sync the files on each computer.

You create a dropbox account (you'll start off with 2GB of storage space, but use my link and you'll get 250mb more). It's free. Then you install the program on both computers. A folder will be created under My Documents called My Dropbox. Simply save any documents, pictures, etc to this folder (you can create subfolders) and they will be automatically transferred to your storage drive on their system, which will copy them to any other computers you have registered.
Also, you can view/access your files directly from their website as well.

This would have come in so handy for me when I was in school.

There are two downsides:

1. The data is stored on their storage space, so you would want to be careful with sensitive information (not that I have anything they'd want to see anyway).
2. Since the data is stored on their system, you are limited to 2GB (you can get 250MB for each person you refer, up to 3GB, which would max out your total space to 5GB). This really is plenty for me.

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:51:00 +0000

Merry Christmas!

Live Cashback

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:18:00 +0000

I probably spend the vast majority of my money online. And luckily there are a number of sites out there that offer cashback incentives if you shop online by going through a link on their site. I used to use eBates all the time (I made almost $400 from them last year). Microsoft has come up with their own site - live.com. Unlike eBates, the cashback amounts seem to change frequently, but they can be really high. Currently they offer 2.75% cashback for Newegg.com, 5% at Walmart.com, and from time to time they offer up to 30% cashback from eBay (too bad it's limited to 6 times per year).

The site is pretty cool to use to compare prices as well. For example, I was looking for the movie October Sky. Typing that into the search box comes up with the DVD and the books. I click on the DVD and it brings up a number of stores, their price, whether shipping is free or not, and how much cashback I'd get from each site.

You have to wait 60 days to be able to get your money. After the 60 days, you get a reminder from them and you can request it to go to your paypal account (no fees involved), direct deposit, or a check. I've gotten about $30 already.

The only problem I've experienced is with Deepdiscount.com. I've made two purchases from them, but I've never gotten any cashback. I've never had a problem with any other site. You'll get a confirmation e-mail almost immediately after your purchase.

The one thing that is annoying is that it takes several clicks to get into your account. I also use Mozilla, and I guess Microsoft must not let it save your password, so I have to enter it all again everytime I go to the site.

Go Vote!!

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:46:00 +0000

Everyone needs to go vote on November 4th. If you don't vote, you're pretty stupid (but maybe it's better if you don't vote if you're that stupid). It was real sad at work the other day. A coworker and I were talking about politics, and we pretty much see eye-to-eye for the most part. When I asked him if he was going to go vote, he said, no. He admitted he's basically just too lazy to vote, and he doesn't really care because it's not going to directly effect him. I really couldn't believe that. But unfortunately, that's the view of a lot of people.

Now I will admit that one single vote probably won't make a difference (although I believe it has in the past. I searched Google but I couldn't find a link), but when a large group of people don't bother to vote, that does make a difference. In the 2004 election, more than 122,000,000 people voted. Bush won with 50.3% of the votes, and Kerry lost with 48.3%. But if you add in all those who didn't vote who were eligible (78,000,000 votes!!), Bush only received 30.8% of all the eligible votes. Almost 40% of those who could vote in that election didn't vote. That's pretty sad. Even sadder is that the turnout in that election was the highest since 1968. (The source for most of this came from this article).

Google will tell you where to go to vote. Put in your zip code, and there will be a link at the bottom for your state that will tell you if you're registered, and where you are registered to vote at. My state listed my registered address and party affiliations.

This is my first time actually voting, so I'm a little excited. I was in school during the previous elections, and so voted with absentee ballots.

Free Audio Book - All of Grace

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:28:00 +0000

Christian Audio's free audio book for the month of October is C. H. Spurgeon's All of Grace. The recording is 3 hrs and 22 minutes long. The narrator is Simon Vance, who has narrated many other audio books and does a good job. The mp3 format sells on Amazon.com for $14.03.

This is an excellent classic that every believer should read (or listen to) at least once.

Investing for the Beginner

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:01:00 +0000

I've always been interested in investing, but it was only a couple months ago that I actually got into it. One of the things I wished I had done was to have read some beginner books, instead of jumping right in.

For the average person who doesn't have thousands and thousands to invest, you really don't want to invest in single stocks. A better choice would be Mutual Funds. A mutual fund is basically a collection of stocks and/or bonds and/or other securities, and is run by (hopefully) a professional who spends all of their time researching the market so that you don't have to. A mutual fund gives you what’s called diversification – not putting all your eggs in one basket.

If you do choose to invest in individual stocks, you’ll need to get rid of the idea of being able to double your money in a couple months – it won’t happen. When you buy stocks, you should buy them with the mindset of having them for at least 1 year at the bear minimum, but more realistically 5-10 years. Another thing to keep in mind is that when you sell your shares and you make money, that’s called a Capital Gain. If you have held your shares for less than 1 year, you will have a higher capital gain tax on them then if you had held them for more than 1 year.

You’ll want to develop a portfolio – your collection of stocks and bonds, etc. The proportion of each will vary depending on what you’re trying to do. If you’re in it for the long haul, you’ll want more stocks. If you’re going to need the money soon, you’ll want more bonds. Bonds are more stable then stocks, but also have a lower rate of return.

There are a number of ways out there to buy stocks and mutual funds. I use Sharebuilder for my stocks. They offer an automatic investment plan where you can choose a dollar amount to invest however often you like, and it only costs $4 per trade. This offers an advantage called Dollar Cost Averaging. They charge $9.95 for market trades (where you tell them how many stocks you want to buy and when you want to buy them), and that’s the average price for most of the discount brokers. Their customer service isn’t the greatest from my experience.

For mutual funds, I opened an account with Schwab, and I have been very pleased with it. They have their own mutual funds (though there are hundreds and hundreds of others you can buy through them, too), and they don’t charge you any fees for buying them. The minimum purchase requirement for most of them is only $100, and then you can do any amount after that. They offer a lot a ton of research tools as well. Sharebuilder had a lot tools, but only if you upgraded to a paying account ($12-20 a month). There are no monthly fees at Schwab. Their customer service is excellent as well. I e-mailed them a question, and the guy called me right back and was very helpful.

Another thing I liked about Schwab’s is that I can input the information from my other accounts (like my 401k and Sharebuilder), and it will analyze it all for me and give me a detailed print out.

You can use something like Yahoo’s portfolio manager to keep track of your holdings. You simply enter in the symbol, the # of shares and the price you paid for them. It will keep track of it, and even tell you how much you have gained/lost, and it updates all day long. Finance.yahoo.com also offers a number of useful tools. Google has their own version, but it seems to be far inferior to Yahoo’s.

In a future post I will recommend some of the books I have read. Hopefully this stuff will be of some use to someone.

The Confessions of Saint Augustine

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:18:00 +0000

Each month ChristianAudio.com offers a book for free. This month's book is The Confessions of Saint Augustine, read by Simon Vance. The audio book currently sells on Amazon.com for $22.02, so free is certainly a very good price. I have not listened to this audio book yet, but I have listened to others by Simon Vance and he has always done a very good job with the narration. The recording is produced by Hovel Audio, so it is a quality production.

From Wikipedia:

Summary

The works outline Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1000 years of the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 40s, and he lived long afterwards, producing another important work (City of God); it does, nonetheless, provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single individual from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological work. In the work St. Augustine writes about how much he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil, and St. Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity. He shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins, and writes on the importance of sexual morality. He also mentions that his favorite subject in school was mathematics because it was concrete and more rigorously defined than other subjects. The book is thought to be divisible into chapters which symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian belief.

The files consist of 10 35mb files, for a total of 12 hrs and 48 minutes.

A Note on Book Clubs

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:40:00 +0000

You've probably seen their advertisements in the newspaper, in magazines, and online - get 6 books for 99¢ (plus shipping and handling), and the you have to buy so many more in the future.

This month I was kicking myself for having done one of those offers quite a while ago, and now I got a letter from the book club reminding me that I would have to either purchase 4 books to fulfill my obligation, or they would just bill me for the average price of a book (which they said was $18.37 each). I was very tempted to just ignore it. Since this isn't tied to my credit or SSN in any way, there's really nothing they can do if I don't pay (other than the letters and collection calls). But ethically I guess I have to - I did make an agreement with them.

So I logged on to their site and selected 2 books. I saw an ad on their site that if you purchased 2 books, you got a third free and free shipping. So that wouldn't make it too bad, especially with the shipping, as that's where they tend to stick it to you. I selected me 3 books and checked out. It came to $39.39 for 3 books - $13.13 each. This was actually cheaper than Amazon.com for a change (the same 3 books would have cost me $51.21 at Amazon.com). Today I logged on to purchase the remaining 2 books that I needed for to complete my agreement. These two books were cheaper ones. They no longer had the special of buy two get one, or the free shipping (and it had only been 3 days later), but they did do $5 off over $10. So I got two books for $21.02 with tax and shipping ($6.50 for shipping). These would have cost me about $35 on Amazon.com, but if I had selected used copies I could have gotten both of them for under $10.

If you're going to buy several books, one of these book clubs might work out for you, but if it's only 1 book you want, by the time they add on shipping and handling, you'd be better off getting it from Amazon.

I did have a good experience with the History Book Club. Their offer was you got 4 books for $1 each, plus shipping, with nothing else to buy. The total came to about $17 for that. That was a good deal. Columbia House also has a similar deal with music CDs - usually it's you get 7 now, then you buy one at normal prices, and get 4 more free. With shipping and everything it ends up to be about $40 for all the CD's, which isn't a bad price either.

My advice for you - stay away from those membership clubs unless the membership terms don't require you to buy anything else.

Sermon by Paul Washer

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:19:00 +0000

I came across this sermon today and I heartily recommend that you listen to it. It is by Paul Washer, a man I never heard of before. He founded the HeatCry Missionary Society, which does church planting works in Peru. This message was given at the 2002 Youth Evangelism Conference in Montgomery, Alabama.

The sermon was based on Matthew 7:13-27. He attacks American Christianity for our "easy-believe-ism" faith. I have copied here a little bit of the opening.

"I stand here today . . . I’m not troubled in my heart about your self-esteem. I’m not troubled in my heart about whether or not you feel good about yourself, whether or not life is turning out like you want it to turn out, or whether or not your checkbook is balanced. There’s only one thing that gave me a sleepless night. There’s only one thing that troubled me all throughout the morning, and this is this. Within a hundred years, a great majority of people in this building will possibly be in hell. And many who even profess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend an eternity in hell.

You say, Pastor, how can you say such a thing? I can say such a thing because I don’t do my Christian work in America. I spend most of my time preaching in South America, in Africa, and Eastern Europe. And I want you to know that, when you take a look at American Christianity, it is based more upon a godless culture than it is upon the Word of God. And so many people are deceived, and so many youth are deceived, and so many adults are deceived into believing that, because they prayed a prayer one time in their life, they’re going to Heaven. And then, when they look around at others who profess to know Christ and see those people also just as worldly as the world, and they compare themselves by themselves, nothing troubles their heart. They think, well, I’m the same as most in my youth group. I watch things I shouldn’t watch on television and laugh about the very things that God hates. I wear clothing that is sensual. I talk like the world. I walk like the world. I love the music of the world. I love so much that’s in the world, but bless God, I am a Christian. Why am I a Christian? I don’t look any different than most of the other people in my church. Why am I a Christian? Because there was a time in my life when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart.

I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American evangelical and protestant church is that, if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in. You will not find that in any place in Scripture. You will not find that anywhere in Baptist history until about 50 years ago. What you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ. And faith alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance - a turning away from sin, a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things that God loves, a growing in holiness and a desire not to be like Britney Spears, not to be like the world, and not to be like the great majority of American Christians, but to be like Jesus Christ! "

Washer hits the proverbial nail on the head. So easily in our churches we put so much emphasis on someone praying a prayer and saying that Jesus is Lord, and yes that needs to be done. But if the life is not changed, then is that person really saved? Obviously it's not up to us to say, because we cannot see or judge the heart. But the Bible does clearly say that Christians will be known by their fruit. He makes another good point that so often after youth conference or a week of camp, or a convicting sermon, etc., you make a choice to make God first in your life, and that may last a week, or even several weeks before it diminishes and goes away. But if the change really was of God, it will last.

Often times we look at our lives and we say, "well, I do the same things as the other people in my church do, so I must be saved," but who says they are our standard? They are not - the standard to which we must be like is Jesus Christ.

Another good point he brings up concerns how the Bible tells you that you are saved. He says :

"You know you have been saved because your life is in the process of being changed, and your style of life is one of walking in the paths of God’s truth. And when you step off those paths in disobedience, as we all do, God comes for you and puts you back on the path. One of the greatest evidences that you have truly been born again is that God will not let you talk as your flesh might want to talk. God will not let you dress as the sensual world and the sensual church allows you to dress. God will not allow you to act like the world, smell like the world, speak like the world, listen to the things that the world listens to. God will make a difference in your life."

From Hebrews 13 we know what God disciplines His children. If you can go out and sin freely and without consequence, then perhaps you need to consider if you are truly saved.

This was a very convicting sermon and I would highly suggest that you listen to it. At SermonAudio you can listen to it online, or download the audio file, or even download it as a video. The sermon is just under 1 hour.

The Pilgrim's Progress

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:04:00 +0000

ChristianAudio.com offers a free download every month. The current book for June is The Pilgrim's Progress, read by Nadia May. It is just over 10 hrs long. This is probably one of the most read books of all time, outside of the Bible. It is one that every believer should read at least once in their lifetime.

I've only listened to a few minutes of this, so I can't really judge the quality of the reading. Personally, I think it would have been done better if it was read by Simon Vance or Nick Cordileone - The Pilgrim's Progress is a book I think better read by a male voice, but free is free.

This item sells for $22 on Amazon.com.

I almost forgot all about this month's download!! Christian Audio provides a different one each month. They are professionally done, too. I know other sites that offer free audiobooks are often something done very quickly, but that it not the case with Christian Audio. Their audiobooks are available at retail stores as well.

Check back on July 1st for another free audiobook.

Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:08:00 +0000

Today was one of the most relaxing Memorial Day's I've ever had. It was absolutely beautiful outside, and I spent a good portion of the day outside lounging in the shade with a good book.

I have been spending a lot of time lately reading about World War II Naval battles, and I think that helped make today a little more meaningful. A week or so ago I watched the movie Flags of Our Fathers, and if you haven't seen it you should. It documents some of the lives of the men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. The movie was good for the most part (warning: some very graphic war It's said that that picture is one of the most reproduced pictures of all time.

I am currently reading The Last Stand of the Tine Can Soldiers, which is about a US Navy battle in WWII. I am only about 20% of the way through, but so far it has proved to be a very interesting and informative book. I have several other similar books on my reading list.

Probably one of the best ways to honor all these men who gave their lives for this country would be to know who they are. I know in all my history classes at school I never really learned many of the names. Sure, you learn who the big brass are, but rarely the name of the ones that gave up their lives, let alone the story behind them.

English Puritan Theology Course

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:29:00 +0000

Reformed Theological Seminary is offering many of their classes for free online. You'll need iTunes (free) to download the lectures. They have a large selection of classes. You can download all the lectures along with the syllabus.

I just started today English Puritan Theology, taught by J. I. Packer. Each lecture is 30-45 minutes long, and I think there are 17 of them.

From the course description on the website: "This survey of the historical and cultural background of seventeenth-century Puritanism in Great Britain and North America includes an examination of some leading theologians (and selected texts) such as John Owen, Richard Sibbes, Thomas Goodwin, Samuel Rutherford, and Thomas Hooker."

I ordered the books I needed from Amazon.com today (for a total of $32). I guess that's not too bad of a price to pay for a 2-credit seminary course. You can actually take these classes for credit as well, just you'd have to pay for them.

The first lecture was pretty interesting. A lot of people think that the Puritans were a bunch of boring people who thought anything fun was sinful. That simply is not the case. For whatever reason people have labeled them as such and it really does not fit. Dr. Packer gave an interesting example in the lecture: After an ordination service they would often have dancing and celebration. Some would say that proves how boring they were - they had ordinations at their parties. But you could also view it as how alive they were - they had parties with their ordinations!

I am greatly looking forward to this class. I am looking forward to learning more about the Puritans. I started reading Thomas Watson's The Doctrine of Repentance a few weeks ago and it is absolutely fantastic. When the Puritans wrote about a subject they generally wrote exhaustively (and sometimes it's exhausting on the reader, too), but you will be hard pressed to find their match. One of my teachers at BJU, Dr. Short, said that sometimes there's more in the table of contents of a Puritan book than in many modern Christian books in their entirety!

After I took my first correspondence class from BJU I have wanted to take another one. I have been considering taking another class from them but unfortunately it costs about $650 for a 2-credit course and almost $1000 for a 3-credit course, and I simply cannot afford that. So these free classes from RTS are a blessing.

My only complaint is that there isn't a reading schedule - i.e. it would be nice to know what pages of what book to read before I listen to the lecture.

The Loraine Boettner Theological Collection for Bible Explorer

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 11 May 2008 03:08:00 +0000

Rejoice Software is having a special through May 24th. The Loraine Boettner Theological Collection is on sale for only $5.95. The normal price is $9.95. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article in case you don't know who he was.

It contains 9 titles and over 2,000 pages:

The Christian Attitude Toward War
Divorce
A Harmony of the Gospels
Immortality
The Millennium
The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
The Reformed Faith
Roman Catholicism
Studies in Theology

These books will all integrate into your Bible Explorer or WordSearch Library.

Here is the link to add the item to your cart.

Once you purchase the collection you will be given a link to download the program that will install the books. You will want to keep a copy of this program because if you ever re-install it, you will need to re-run the program.The program is only available for download for a couple days from your date of purchase.

Macaroni and Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 11 May 2008 01:52:00 +0000

Here's a recipe for Macaroni and Cheese that I've come up with that turned out pretty good:

Start boiling 1lb macaroni noodles. In a separate pan, but 3 tbsp butter, 1/2 c. milk, and 3 tbsp flour. Add 1-2 cups (depending on your taste) of cheese. I use a mixture of about 2/3 sharp cheddar and 1/3 mozzarella. You want it to be a little runny (it'll dry up when you bake it), so add more milk if you need to.

Once the noodles are ready, pour them into a oven-safe dish and pour the cheese mixture over top. Stir it up real good. Sprinkle some sharp cheddar on top. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

If you have any other good homemade recipes please post them!

New Blog for Book Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:14:00 +0000

I have decided to start a new blog for just Book Reviews. I considered just posting them on the old blog, but I decided to create a whole new blog for it.

I intend to review every book I read from now on. So the blog will also serve to work as a record of my reading habits, and hopefully get me to read more. I also intend to include Audio Books as well.

The new site can be found at http://dmacs-books.blogspot.com/.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:33:00 +0000

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is probably the most famous sermon ever preached (with the exception of those done in the Scriptures). Jonathan Edwards originally preached this sermon on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Massachusetts. When Edwards preached, he simply just read his sermon. It is said for this particular sermon that he actually had to ask the crowds to settle down so that he could finish his message and that several people fainted.

Edwards took his text from Deuteronomy 32:35 - "Their foot shall slide in due time." His main point is that "there is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."

This is formatted as a classic Puritan sermon:

Introduction
Doctrine
Application

You can read the text of the sermon here. There is a very nicely done audio sermon available here for free. The audio sermon was performed by Mark Dever at Capital Hill Baptist Church for an actual church service. `

Book Sale!!

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:45:00 +0000

Today was a day I look forward to all year long - the annual library book sale bag sale!! It was $3 a bag and $5 a box. I got 2 big boxes with a ton of books. I got almost everything Michael Crichton has written. I just finished reading his Jurassic Park, and it was very good. As with all books-made-into-movies, the book is always much better. So I got everything I could find of his. I actually went up yesterday when the books were 80% off (75¢ for hardcovers and 20¢ for paperbacks). I got all of his stuff in paperbacks because I didn't want to risk waiting for the bag sale and then not getting any. But they had all of the hardcovers still, so I now have like 5 or 6 extras. But that's better than not having any at all!

I got a couple by Robert Ludlum. I've been meaning to read his Bourne Conspiracy, and maybe I'll get around to it someday.

I was a little surprised that I only saw one book by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (some of my favorite authors). I have almost all of their books, but I was hoping to get some hardcovers to replace the paperbacks that I have.

I also got about 30 nice hardcover children's Bible story books. I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna keep them for my own kids someday or give them to my future niece/nephew.

I came across 10 volumes from the Harvard's Classic Library. That was a 51-volume set published in 1909 by Charles Eliot. Eliot was the president of Harvard and he had said in a speech that you could get a liberal arts education by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that would fit on a 5-foot long shelf. He was then challenged to create the collection, and this is the result. Here's a picture of what they look like. I would love to have the complete set, but I wouldn't have any room! The ones I have are just like the ones in the picture, except they are a greenish-blue.

Shopping Links

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:50:00 +0000

I've added a new list on the side - Shopping Links. Currently there is a link for Buy.com and Betterworld Books. More will be added as they become available. If you are going to purchase something from them, if you could please shop through that link it would be very much appreciated as I would get a small commission. The cost to you is exactly the same as if you had gone directly to the site - there's no fee or anything.

Libronix - The Apex of Bible Study Software

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:36:00 +0000

After my post about Bible Explorer I just had to do one on my favorite Bible software - Libronix by Logos Bible Software.
Libronix is the best software out there and in my opinion, nothing else even comes close. It truly is a digital library, and they are approaching around 10,000 different books available. They range from devotionals to scholarly works to commentaries to theological studies and much more.

Here's a small video clip that gives a good overview of the basic things Logos does. There's a ton more clips here.

Some of the cool features I use are:
- extensive Bible word look-up features. Using the NASB, I can click on any word and it will take me to the same word in either the Greek or Hebrew. And then it will even parse the original word for me. And another click lets me look up the word in my various original language books.
- Englishman's Concordance. I select a Greek or Hebrew word and it will list all the verses it occurs in, but lists them in English with the English word translated in bold and lined up so that you can easily see how all the verses translated it.
- Searching - you can search through all the books in your library (or just a single book or a collection of books) with just one click. I have over 2,500 books in my library. It would take me forever to search through my print books.

The Listener's Bible - ESV

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:27:00 +0000

There are a number of Audio Bible out there. I've listened to several of them (not the whole thing!!) and of all of them I have to say that the best by far is The ESV Listener's Bible, narrated by Max McLean. If you want to hear a sample, they have the Gospel of John in NIV for free. You can also go to www.christianbooks.com and hear samples from the ESV version.

I listen to it a lot on my mp3 player while I'm walking or doing stuff around the house or working on my garden. It's also nice for those nights when you have trouble sleeping.

Max McLean does an excellent job on this. He puts a little emphasis on some parts and it really enhances your experience. Others I've listened to, such as Stephen Johnson, seemed very monotone and was difficult to listen to for extended periods of time - I just couldn't concentrate.

The cheapest I've seen this is on Amazon.com for $33.

Bible Explorer 4

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:52:00 +0000

I've used a number of different Bible Software over the years such as e-Sword, Pradis, Libronix, the SWORD Project and Bible Explorer.

Libronix is easily the best one, unfortunately it is also very pricey. Pradis is difficult to use not to mention just as pricey as Libronix, and often when a new upgrade comes out, your old books will not transfer, which means you'd have to buy them all over again. I'd stay away from Pradis. Both e-Sword and the SWORD Project are relatively easy to use and have a wide-range of free books. I have to say that Bible Explorer is probably the best one out there for the common person. Libronix is better, of course, but the books are much more expensive. If all you are going to do is read, the Bible Explorer is the one for you. For serious study, then Libronix.

I have been amazed at the excellent prices for books for Bible Explorer. Doxa Digital Press has provided a number of excellent books at very cheap prices. They have all 52 volumes of A. W. Tozer for $35, or about 60¢ a volume whereas Libronix has it for $190 on sale ($3.33 a volume), with their normal price being $399 ($7 a volume). For me, it would make obvious sense to get the $35 version than the $190 version, as these are just simple books that I am going to read. If it was something complex like a Greek NT, then Libronix would have much more added value to it.

I also purchased a collection of 5 of Louis Berkhof's Theological works for $5.95. That's hard to beat. Rejoice Software carries a lot of the titles (the guy who operates the site is the guy behind Doxa Digital Press). If you subscribe to his e-mail list, you'll get an e-mail about once a month with a special.

So go check it out. Download Bible Explorer 4 and then look for the free books in the catalog. There are 181 of them right now! Go here and you can download all of them, plus the ESV.

High Interest Savings and Checking Accounts

noreply@blogger.com (dmac) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 01:02:00 +0000

For years I've been using my savings and checking accounts at my local bank. I got .45% APR interest on the savings, and nothing on the checking. I tried an account with ING Direct, and it looks pretty good. Everything is done online. They have two products that you will be interested in:

Orange Savings Account. Currently it as about a 4% APR interest rate. You can transfer money to it from your current bank account or by writing a check to yourself and mailing it to them.
Electric Orange Checking. This gives you a 1.75% APR interest rate. You don't get a book of blank checks, but you use it by using the free bill pay services. You can also use it to mail someone a check as well.

So I am planning on switching all my bills over to ING Direct. With my current bank, if I had $1000 in the savings for 1 year, I would have gotten $4.50 in interest. With ING Direct, I'm looking at $40. That's a pretty big difference.

If anyone is interested in opening an account, I can send you a link that you get $25 if you open an account with $250. There are no fees for the accounts, and the minimum balance is $1.