Tag: blog
Categories
Work being done on sermon database
Categories
A New Name for my Blog
Sometimes when I see one of those big flashing arrow signs on the highway pointing to a lane closure or a detour, I reflect on how we might wish that life came with flashing directional signals that we could not miss. I know I have needed such a thing more than once. But life does not, and so many people lose their way amid the maze of decisions, circumstances and pressures that face people every day. I remember when I first felt called to become a pastor, one who helps others along life’s road, one of the objectives in my mind was to be used of God in helping to teach people how to live wisely. I hoped to help folks learn to make wise choices. It’s a dangerous and slightly presumptuous undertaking because no matter how old or educated one is, one must undertake the task while very much a learner along the road.
The Good News is that one of the purposes of the Bible is to provide the principles to teach us how to live wisely. Consider, for example, the stated purpose from the prologue of the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament.
For gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
For receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
For giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—
Let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance— Prov 1:2-5 NIV 2011
In addition, God’s Holy Spirit has promised to guide Christ-followers in their journey. So there is hope!
The Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Prov 2:6 NIV 2011
Recently, this focus on helping others live wisely has been impressed upon me again. Accordingly, I have decided to change the title of my blog to: Learn to be Wise. I hope that the change will accomplish several purposes.
- It will help my blog focus more on wisdom for daily living. I want to write more in the wisdom category on my blog.
- It will enlarge the blog’s appeal beyond those who normally look at the writings of pastors. This is an important factor in New England where fewer people have a relationship to a church that in upstate New York.
- It aligns the title with the web address, an address chosen two years ago because we could not get one that looked like the old blog title. Could it be that God was already at work pointing in this direction? I think so.
Of course, there will still be some family posts; that keeps the blog personal. And there will still be some church-related posts; church gives me a great deal of context. But overall, I trust the percentage of posts will shift toward practical comments on daily life and reflections that help us find wisdom for our daily choices.
Categories
Sermon Texts Temporarily Unavailable
Please excuse the construction in the sermon area of my blog. I have used the plug-in Sermon Browser but for the last year I have been unable to easily post in it. It has become clear that it is no longer being supported. So I am searching for a new solution. So far I have not found a good one. I will be experimenting with theme changes too.
A new domain name
In preparation for my retirement from Community Wesleyan Church in a few months, Steven Sgroi, my web technical guru, and I are working to untangle my internet presence from the church’s internet site. As a part of that process, my blog will have a new location in the future. For now, if you try to access it from the old address it will redirect you to the new one just fine, but eventually, you will want to find me at the new address site—learntobewise.com.
Living wisely is the focus
I am excited about the possibilities of this name too. Just think about the fact that one whole section of the Old Testament is devoted to wisdom. I think also about the last words of Psalm 107 which might just be good mission statement for my blog at learntobewise.com. I should be writing in such a way that my reader would want to take the Psalm writer’s advice. “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord” (Ps 107:43 NIV). I have always felt that one of the jobs of a pastor is to live wisely and help others live wisely also. So I think this new domain name will be a great fit. I also like the idea in the name that we are not wise all at once. Rather, we are always learning and becoming wiser.
Categories
Paragraphing restored
Today I say many thanks to my tech man, Steven Sgroi, for figuring out why WordPress was stripping the paragraphing out of my posts and pages. The pages I have written recently read so much more easily with the paragraphing restored. He said it had to do with the “editor.” Thank you Steven
Categories
On the nature of blogging today
100th comment from Germany
I received my 100th comment on my blog today. It was a TrackBack. I left it up because of its significance. It was from an advertisement site, but the interesting part was that the site was in German. That is quite significant. My count statistics plug-in tells me that the number of visitors to my blog from Germany is equal to about one third of the number of visitors from the United States. Visitor count from the third-highest country, the Ukraine, falls off quickly to one third of that from Germany. The third-highest number of reads comes from Hong Kong. I am amazed to discover that the total reads outside the United States is approximately equal to the number of reads in the United States. So my 100th comment reminds me that I blog in a very international setting.
100th comment a precisely targeted ad
Secondly, the advertisement is for a Kindle reader and it is attached to the article I wrote about whether physical libraries are already becoming obsolete. Much of the spam I delete from my blog is attached almost randomly to any article that the spammer thinks may attract attention. But this trackback ad was different. It was targeted very specifically to the relevant article on the topic addressing the exact issue that fitted the item being sold. This shows the true power of targeted Internet connectivity. I predict more advertising money diverted from the scatter-guns of mass mail and broadcast media to the focused targeting potential of the Internet.
Categories
Problem with WordPress
Please pardon the lack of paragraphs in my writing recently. Since the last upgrade, the program has been stripping them out. Steven and I are working on it but have not found a solution yet.