toddjohnston.org

So, occasionally I get a funny spam email in my gmail account. This happens to be one of those emails:

Dear Sir / Madam,

It is our pleasure to inform you that your email address won on the 3rd
category $521,000.00 on the global lottery instituted by president Obama
Barak which took place in Houston Texas on the 4th of March, 2009. As
part of his economic reforms and unification into global family to bring
peace to our world and ensure good opportunities.

To apply for your prize payment, you are required to contact Lottery
Commission via below email contact with your given file numbers
(001/TX7/OL0982).
Include your names, country and mobile telephone number:

Lottery Commission,
1919 N Loop W, Houston, TX 77008,
Email; w_602@live.fr
Contact: T. Jordan.
Payment Auditor.

Take note: to avoid any mistake, copy the above contact email, paste it in
your browser, write out your informations and send. Or Just click reply to
this email and write your informations and send.

Congratulations once more.

Yours Faithfully,

Mrs. Wilse D Apetia -
Online Co-coordinator -

So, there really is some spammer out there who thinks this stuff works, but videos like this make me take pause and think again. Maybe some people really do buy into it.

I really don’t want to have an argument with anyone out there on this subject, frankly because I’ve done that before and it isn’t fun. Often times I’ve found that people on the other end of the discussion aren’t really interested in searching God’s word for biblical life-nourishing truth. Instead they would rather argue and insist on creating “biblical-worldviews” for themselves that prop-up and comfort their western, individualistic, and enlightenment inspired notions of Christianity–something that would make little sense to people such as Paul (who wrote half of the new testament).

Earlier I came across some great resources from one of the greatest BAPTIST pastors of our day on the subject of Calvinism, John Piper. It’s a several part seminar he did for people doubting and/or struggling through the “doctrines of grace” as they are called by some. If you’re interested, please do check out the TULIP seminar.

Some very intriguing proposals from John Piper on how to best spend the economic stimulus that most of us will be getting back from the government:

For a moment, forget the political puzzle of getting money back when the country is nine trillion dollars in debt. The more immediate question is: How will you make much of Christ with your “economic stimulus payment”? The president says it will be in the mail in time for Cinco de Mayo.

Clue: Nobody in the world will see you spend your money on yourself and conclude that Christ is your treasure. They will assume you are just like them, no matter how loudly you thank God for this boon. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend it on yourself (the way we do with most of what we earn). Not everything we do can look different from the world—eat, pay utilities, fill up the car, wear clothes (even thrift-store clothes). And yes, we hope (somehow) that spending on ourselves in some way contributes to our being more Christ-exalting people.

But do we really need this money? Very few do. We would have gotten on fine without it. If we didn’t know it was coming, we wouldn’t even be feeling the desires we are feeling right now.

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in “extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a “wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home project.

The reason God created money and enabled us to earn it is so that we could show by the way we use it that money is not our treasure, Christ is. That’s why the checks are coming. So we can make Christ look great.

“Be content with what you have, for he has said,
‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5-6).

My company has had the privilege of developing and recently releasing a new site for syndicated radio show host and all-around money guru Clark Howard. Clark needed a new site to replace his aging autographed book website and of course we were happy to help. Much thanks go out to Tim Harman Photography for all of the photos on the site and my buddy Joel for deciding to give us a shot at helping Clark out.

So go check it out already:

www.getclarksmart.com

A quote from Piper’s blog today quoting Jonathan Edwards echoes Paul’s deep longing to express that the only thing he has to boast in is the cross (Galatians 6:14).

So, from Piper today:

Outside the Bible I have never read anything more devastating to the impenetrable permutations of pride than the section in Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections titled, “Sign #6, Gracious affections are attended with evangelical humiliation.” It ends with one of the most beautiful things I have ever read. Few paragraphs fill me with longing like this one:

All gracious affections that are a sweet odor to Christ, and that fill the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are broken hearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble broken hearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires. Their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is a humble broken hearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit; and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behavior.

When we live a life humbled by the reality of the cross, where everything that seemed worthy about us died with Christ, we have nothing left but to find meaning in humbly accepting the adornment of worth and satisfaction that comes from knowing Christ. Outward appearances (Galatians 6:12) clothes, hair, suits, ties, jeans, shoes, circumcision (as in Paul’s day), and whatever else would deem you cool, uncool, or righteous by others matter none. There is no “Sunday’s Best”. There is no Sunday’s worst. Because, without the clothing of Christ’s righteousness, we would be left cold, naked, and blind–attempting to warm ourselves with the foolish pride that accompanies a boasting heart.

I came across this very brainy study named “Evidence of a Significant Solar Imprint in Annual Globally Averaged Temperature Trends” recently which raises some interesting evidence concerning climate change. I’m no scientist, but if the evidence presented in this study holds true, the warming trend in the late 20th century (we are in a cooling trend right now despite all of the media overload saying otherwise) was due to the effects of a “solar cycle”.

I look forward to reading part 2 of their study and hearing more of their conclusions.

My friend Tim just sent me a link to some pics that photographer friend Dan Almasy took of the tornado damage downtown. Dan lives really close to the area of downtown impacted by the tornado and was able to grab some great shots that really show the depth of what took place Friday night. I recommend clicking on the “View as Slideshow” link.

Check out the flickr gallery

My wife and I are leaving in the morning to head up to the mountains until Monday. We have rented a little cabin and I’m very much so looking forward to the seclusion. Getting away means that I can get into the word, get to enjoy some alone time with Rebecca, and get some of the unorganized thoughts running around in my head into more of an organized form.

This week has brought with it some big changes in my life. Monday I left my job at the ad agency and on Tuesday my grandfather, at the age of 93 past away. I’ve also been asked to join the start of a new business with some old friends of mine. So I have a lot to think about and process and I’m not quite sure what’s next. All I know is that God is in control and I’m so glad He is.

I’m not a parent yet, and I am surely weird in many ways, but if some random weird older guy walked up and asked if he could hold my baby I doubt my answer would be any less than “please get the heck away before I . . .”

Such a situation arose earlier at dinner at the table next to us. Random weird guy walked up to the table of total strangers, saw a baby in her mother’s arms and asked if he could hold her and wanted to bring her back to his table to show his family how cute she was. I watched as the father’s eyes grew wide with disbelief as the irritator continued to goo and gaa at the baby . . . still not clueing into the fact that he was being weird. When the mother wasn’t willing to part with her baby, random weird guy asked her back to the table with her baby and she reluctantly agreed.

Random weird guy’s wife seemed to be so embarassed by this episode that she made him pay for the couple’s dinner. At least she knew it was stinking weird.

The housing market in Atlanta seems to be doing comparatively good when compared to most of the rest of the country. It could be doing even better if there were more builders that were focused on being efficient and effective in home production.

I don’t know if it is because they are sitting on their laurels, enjoying the benefits of homeowner overspending or what, but I have projects for builders that I have done work on that are more than 6 months old now. And no, this isn’t advanced planning on their part. It’s slow decision making and being way behind on developments that were set to begin development long ago.

Imagine the positive cost-benefit ratio for builders that payed more attention to being effecient and effective. They could build more houses, sell more houses, and all with less overhead and more profit. Then, savings could be passed onto the buyer.

Imagine how much less buying a house would cost without all the wasteful builder spending. Then maybe people wouldn’t be borrowing way more money than they need to to buy houses they can’t afford because they cost too much stinking money and are overvalued. We wouldn’t even have this so-called “housing bubble” with all of its bursting potential.

It’s probably all a slippery slope I know. “Imagine”, “what if”, and “maybe” are the key words here. Although, I can “imagine” getting paid for 6 month old projects all day long.