Renewing Your Mind

‘Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.’ – Romans 12:2 (NIV)

I searched up ‘renewing of your mind’ on google and it came up with this tripod website:

But unfortunately for most believers, their spiritual growth stops when they became born again because they don’t do anything about changing the way they think. Most go no further than being born again because most people think that once they are born again, then that is all there is to it because now they are saved saints of Jesus Christ that no longer sin. They feel that now that they are born again, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are going to keep them out of sin.

But the truth is, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are both there to help you but they will only help and assist you if they see effort and labor on your part. No effort, then no help. That is why so many believers continue to commit the same old sins and have the same old shortcomings that they had before they were born again.

Once you are born again, God isn’t suddenly going to show up and magically change you into a non-sinning happy and contented believer. Once you are born again you are still going to have a temper problem so that you still get angry if another person “gets in your face” or cuts you off in traffic. Your still going to succumb to the lure of alcohol. You can be born again 1,000 times and your still going to watch those filthy programs on television.

The sad truth is that many people who are born again still live in misery. Still are depressed. Still have thoughts of suicide. Still curse people out. Still beat up the kids. Still drink too much. So many born again Christians have to put on that phony face so that it appears to the world that they are happy sinless Christian followers of Jesus Christ.

So being born again doesn’t mean that you are going to stop a single sin that you have been committing. Nor does being born again prevent you from having all those bad and depressing feelings. They are all still going to be there.

It must be a terrible shock to a great many born again believers when they realize that nothing has changed, that their life style is still evil, that they are still committing the same old sins, in fact, they are still sinning just as much now as they were before they were ever born again. They must wonder why in the world did they ever get born again in the first place.

But what they don’t realize is that all being born again does, is tell Almighty God that you really and truly want to change your life around and that you are going to do everything in your power to change. Being born again simply tells God that you no longer want to follow the world but that from now on you want to follow Jesus Christ. It is here that God gives you a new heart, but that new heart is not enough. It is still vitally important for you to change the way you think about most of the things in your life.

Hence the renewing of the mind. I think the text quoted above relates to many born again christians. I know it does for me. We hear of drug addicts going clean with the power of Jesus. We expect God to  dramatically change us when we are born again. But then we realize we are just the same and nothing has actually changed. That is why we need to renew our mind, with me being no exception.

We need to renew our minds daily to see what God has in plan for us – his good, pleasing and perfect will. At the moment I know God’s plan for me is social justice because he commands all to it. The Sheep and the Goat – Matthew 25:31-40

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. … “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’… “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

- Gab

Anberlin – “The Unwinding Cable Car”

What makes us who we are?

Eyes? hair? race? sex?

Who will you … love?

Who will you … trust?

Where is home?

What hardships will you face?

What hardships will you overcome?

What makes you happy? What are your passions?

If you could … do it all over again …what would you change?

Relationships? choices? direction?

What experience would you relive?

What will you … achieve?

What will you .. be remembered for?

Don’t Drop Your Arms

Such deep provoking questions. From the mv of Anberlin – “The Unwinding Cable Car”. Check it out:

Free SMS Services in Melbourne

Here are a list of free SMS services. There always seems to be a catch so I have ranked them from best to least efficient.

1. Motomusic – Send 50 a week (7 a day)

2. Yakedi! – Send 3 a day or fill out surveys

3. SMSPup – In order to get points you must fill out surverys (time waster)

More coming soon.

Jack of All Trades

Ever heard of the phrase ‘Jack of all trades, master of none‘? You probably have. It means a person with multiple skills but isn’t proficient in any. But what about Leonardo Da Vinci? He was a painter, scientist, mathmetician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, bontanist, musician and writer. Phew. That’s a long list. I wouldn’t be suprised if there was more.

So here’s my question. If Leonardo could do so much over his life time, why can’t we nowadays? Is it because he was the most diversly talented person ever to live? Or was it his infinite curiousity with the world?

I’m no Da Vinci but I want to defy the jack of trade, master of none notion as Da Vinci had. That is why I have many interests. They include; bboying, pen spinning, musician, artist and blogger. Not as many and important as Leonardo’s but they interest me. Would it be possible for me to become proficient in all of my interests? Will I ever to reach the heights of Da Vinci? I would like to think so.

I’m In Like With You is A Million Bucks

June 26, 2008 1:14 PM PDT

I’m In Like With You raises $1.5 million, looks to game development

Posted by Caroline McCarthy

I’m In Like With You, a social-network-turned-gaming-site that caught a brief flurry of press for its eye-popping design when it launched, has just closed a $1.5 million round of venture funding led by Spark Capital. It’s the first funding the site has received since its angel round last year.

In addition to Spark, the round includes current investors Baseline Ventures, Betaworks, and veteran investor Ron Conway, as well as an investment from Netscape and Ning founder Marc Andreessen.

The funding round was widely rumored as the site–having failed to live up to the hype it first generated as a flirty social network–started rebranding itself as a hub for social games but would clearly need more funding (or a corporate parent) to do so. Founder Charles Forman, a fixture on the New York digital-media social circuit known for handing out giant business cards and owning a seemingly endless supply of pink T-shirts, was introduced to Spark’s Bijan Sabet through other local young entrepreneurs late last year.

In a phone interview, Sabet praised Forman’s creative vision and willingness to completely change the site’s direction when he saw a new opportunity in the growing niche of social gaming. I’m In Like With You is keeping its trippy, cartoonish design but the focus is now on multiuser casual games like Blockles, Gemmers, Draw My Thing, and an impending game that involves hamsters.

To complement the funding round, Forman has started expanding his team, including the hire of Skype veteran Poojitha Preena as chief operating officer as well as several game developers. Forman told CNET News.com that the entirety of the $1.5 million would be used to throw a large-scale party, but we think that one’s a joke.

Now I know why it’s so addictive, it’s worth more than a million bucks.

New Blog

I have decided to start a new blog as this blog really doesn’t have a topic. Check it out at http://gabriel-wong.blogspot.com/. I will write about social justice and social entrepreneurship.

Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect

President-elect Obama talks about the economy in this week’s Democratic address. Already 600,000+ hits. :O It’s interesting, Obama favours youtube. Who wouldn’t?

http://iminlikewithyou.com/

Are you super bored? Check out http://iminlikewithyou.com/.

Play Blockles, it’s a multiplayer tetris battle. Also check out Draw My Thing. You have to draw what they tell you  or guess what other people are drawing. It can be really funny.

Beware: It is very addictive. I’ve only stopped because I’ve gone over my download limit. Watch out for that too, it can really eat away from your bandwidth. It even tells you how much time you’ve wasted. But there are levels so you tell yourself your not wasting your time entirely. Here’s a screen shot:

3 Successful Bloggers Share their Blog Tips

1. Write content for people and not for search engines. -Jeremy from Shoemoney

2. Do something different (wild and wacky) that people wouldn’t do to create good content -Steve Pavlina

3. Pick a topic, stick with it and own the topic -Andy Wibbels.

Review

The topic of this blog would be the daily record of events of Gab. Who would read that? Another problem is I don’t blog daily. Therefore I must find a topic, stick with it and own it. Here are some ideas:

- Pen Spinning (There already is a blog on pen spinning )

- Bboying

But people don’t read blogs on bboying and pen spinning, sadly.

Rupert Murdoch

I couldn’t go to sleep last night. So I started reading a biography on Rupert Murdoch by Jerome Tuccille. It was published in 1989 so it’s rather outdated. For those of you who haven’t heard of Rupert Murdoch, he created a world-wide media empire. He started the Australian publication which was Australia’s first national newspaper. His media empire has expanded into Great Britain, the United States and Asia.

News Corp. (which Murdoch is CEO of) owns myspace, 20th Century Fox, mX, the Herald Sun, New York Post, Wall Street Journal and much much more.

He is a very powerful man who has been criticized for holding so much power. All I can say is he is true entrepreneur who knows how to play the game.