I write this for those that find them in a tough season of life. Particular my friends from Church Online who are going through various trials in life; having to (or learning to) suffer well.

suffer: to undergo, be subjected to, or endure anything unpleasant.

1 Peter 4:13 (NIV)
¹³ But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Suffering sucks.

Waiting on God in the midst of a potential divorce. Constantly struggling with health issues. Feeling isolated and alone. Relational heartbreaks. Waking up and realizing your life isn’t what you dreamed of . . .

There’s no denying we all go through seasons of trials which test our endurance and faith in God.

I pray 1 Peter 4:13 plants you squarely in the Word of God and reminds you of the hope you have in Him.

Suffering well promotes and prepares.

It promotes the Gospel and prepares for future glory.

Suffering Well Promotes the Gospel

Christians demonstrate the most Christ-likeness to the world in our sufferings.

The Good News isn’t that our lives are always peachy keen.

The Good News is that our lives on earth are only temporary. That our hope is in Jesus Christ and the life to come. The Good News is that no matter what happens to us externally, we are internally regulated by our faith in Jesus Christ.

He gives us hope when there seems to be none. He gives us strength when we lack it ourselves. He gives us courage when we are scared out of our minds.

This type of Good News is only visible to the world when we suffer well.

Suffering Well Prepares for Future Glory

When we “participate in the sufferings of Christ,” we conform more to the likeness of Christ. As we do that we also get to participate in His glory.

Jesus’ faithful suffering paved the way for his exaltation to the right hand of God.

There’s no telling what glory God wants to reveal on the other end of your suffering. The only way to find out is to suffer well. And be steadfast and obedient, as Jesus did, to the very end.

1 Peter 4:13 uses the word “overjoyed” to describe the feeling you’ll have when God’s glory is revealed.

Look forward to it!

1 Peter 4:29 (NIV)
¹⁹ So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Commit your situation to God. Believe He is faithful. Continue to suffer well.

God has your back. He sees you. And he is for you every step of the way.

With much love,
-Alex

Photo courtesy of Cia de Foto.

This is going to be an uncharacteristic blog post. Meaning it hasn’t been super thought out and taken me two hours to write. I’m going to go against the norm and pound this thought out in 15 minutes.

Let’s see how I do . . .

I’m chillin’ here trying to sleep, but my ankle hurts like crazy. I’m six months post-surgery on my Achilles tendon and think I’ve been too active too soon on it. Thus why my leg feels like that of an 80 year old man.

One of the things that worries me (slightly) is if I’ll ever be 100% again. I take a lot of joy (and pride?) from being active and good at most anything requiring hand/eye coordination. I’m wondering if I’m getting old (I’m 29) and all physical activity from here will be downhill.

And basically the things I was once good at I will no longer be.

It makes me think of the things I’m good at and that bring me happiness. It makes me think about how my job at the church has become less of what I’m good at and more of what I’m not good at.

I wonder if my strength is now no longer how well I can do things or how good I can be at sports? How lean and semantically correct of a website I can code.

But who can I teach. Who can I coach to become better at me in those areas?

Really, it comes down to is my focus now less on perfecting my craft but more on helping others perfect their craft? Less what I can do, but who else can do it. And how can I help them do it better than I ever could?

It is the concept of building disciples.

Our mission as Christians is to go and build disciples. To teach them to obey God’s commandments. Matthew 28:19-20.

Have I now become less student and more teacher?

Rather than being about what I used to be able to do or what I can accomplish myself, but what knowledge can I impart to others?

Is this a transition in mindset everyone makes as they get older?

All you wise and experienced readers should chime in here. ;)

Here’s a link for 25% off Net Nanny. The discount is in partnership with my church and is not an affiliate link.

Christian guys look at porn. We search for pictures of naked chicks. We lust after attractive women.

Yup, it’s all true.

A main tool used by Christians to help counteract these temptations and sexual desires is an Internet filter. A program that filters what a person does online and blocks anything that seems shady.

But there are a gazillion different Internet filters out there. So which are the best ones?

The ones that consistently came up in reviews of Internet filters are Net Nanny, CyberPatrol and Safe Eyes.

So which of the three should you use?

If you’re looking for a solid Internet filter to use within an accountability relationship, Net Nanny is the hands down winner.

Read on for why.

What is an accountability relationship?

An accountability relationship can mean a lot of things. In the context of this post it means Sean is accountable to Alex (that’s me!) for the websites he visits.

So I regularly monitor Sean’s browsing habits and respond accordingly. This helps remove the anonymity of browsing porn or other non-edifying websites.

Big brother Alex is always watching. ;)

Why is Net Nanny the best Internet filter for accountability partners?

Here are the features that specifically make Net Nanny the best Internet filter to use in accountability relationships.

Remote management

Most accountability partners don’t live in the same house. Sean and I definitely don’t. I’m sure his wife is pretty happy about that. ;)

So being able to manage the Internet filter’s settings, view reports, etc. without physical access to the computer is a big win.

For example, Sean is at home trying to check out the resources at XXXchurch (a legitimate site) and the filter blocks it. He can call and ask me to unblock the site.

With remote management, I can do that even though I’m at work and don’t have access to Sean’s computer. Without remote access, he would have to wait until I was able to access his computer physically. This is non-ideal and inconvenient for both of us.

And some accountability partners may not even be in the same city . . .

This makes remote management the most important feature for accountability relationships.

While both Net Nanny and CyberPatrol have this feature, Safe Eyes does not.

I’ll note here CyberPatrol has two products: Online Protection and Parental Controls. This post refers to Online Protection since it does include remote management and email notifications. Parental Controls does not.

Usable, detailed reporting

Guys on a mission to see some skin are extremely resourceful. They know 12 different ways to search for boobs.

Which means occasionally Sean may be able to get past the Internet filter and view an inappropriate site. This is where good, detailed reporting comes into play.

I can periodically look at the websites Sean has visited and see if there are any shady websites he was able to visit that didn’t get blocked. That let’s me manually block them so that he can’t visit them again.

The reporting in CyberPatrol is horrible. The only report it has shows just the number of allowed/blocked websites without details about which sites were allowed or blocked. How am I supposed to know if a site was allowed when it shouldn’t have been if I don’t know which sites were visited?

In contrast, the reporting in Net Nanny and Safe Eyes is detailed and useful. Above is just a small sampling of the reports available within Net Nanny.

Notification of blocked sites

Nothing will make Sean pee in his pants more in embarrassment than getting a phone call from me a few minutes after searching for naked pictures of Pamela Anderson and having the website blocked.

This works because the Internet filter sends me an email or text notification whenever Sean visits a blocked site.

Net Nanny, CyberPatrol and Safe Eyes all provide this feature, however, Net Nanny is by far the most flexible and customizable.

Ability to request an override

Inevitably a legitimate site will get filtered and blocked.

Providing a quick and easy way for Sean to let me know XXXchurch is a legitimate site makes it easy for me to unblock it for him.

I don’t have to manually check for legitimate sites that are blocked and unblock them. And Sean doesn’t have to do any more work than clicking a button saying “I want this site unblocked.”

Net Nanny is the only filter that provides this feature.

Not easy to bypass/disable
Remember how resourceful guys are on a mission? Some of the more tech-savvy guys may try various computer hacks to bypass the filter. A secure Internet filter needs to withstand these types of hacks and continue fighting the good fight even if shot in the arm/leg.

Net Nanny has long had the unusual ability to filter even HTTPS traffic . . . None of Net Nanny’s competitors duplicate this feat, though Safe Eyes 6.0 comes close. The latest version of Net Nanny moves further into the lead because it also prevents the kids from using localhost proxy utilities to evade filtering.

Net Nanny resists a simple command-line instruction that disables some competing products, Safe Eyes and CyberPatrol 7.7 among them.
~Net Nanny 6.5 Review (excerpt from section No Hope for Hackers)

In addition to the review above, I was recently skimming the Net Nanny forum and noticed a post detailing a way to bypass Net Nanny. In the next version this hack was disabled. It’s good to see this type of response to work-arounds . . .

Further Research

• NetNanny 6.5 Review (02/22/2010)
• Keep Your Child Safe Online (03/01/2010)
• Internet Filter Software Review 2010
• 2010 Parental Control & Internet Filtering Guide

Internet filtering programs are constantly evolving, so be sure you’re comparing the latest of version each program.

As of this post, the latest versions are NetNanny 6.5, Safe Eyes 6.0 and CyberPatrol Online Protection 1.0.

How do you use Internet filters in an accountability relationship? What have you found effective?

Should ordained pastors/ministers opt out of self employment taxes (i.e. Social Security and Medicare taxes)?

No.

Unless you meet extremely rare requirements.

None of which include the following:

• Social Security benefits won’t be available when I retire
• It’s poor stewardship of God’s money
• I can do a better job investing than the government
• It’s not the governments job to take care of people
• Extra cash in the pocket!

In order to opt out you agree to:

I certify that I am conscientiously opposed to, or because of my religious principles I am opposed to, the acceptance (for services I perform as a minister, member of a religious order not under a vow of poverty, or a Christian Science practitioner) of any public insurance that makes payments in the event of death, disability, old age, or retirement; or that makes payments toward the cost of, or provides services for, medical care. (Public insurance includes insurance systems established by the Social Security Act.)
~IRS Form 4361

That statement is extremely wordy. So let me simplify it for you.

I am conscientiously opposed to the acceptance of any public insurance that makes payments in the event of death, disability, old, age or retirement.

The key here is if you have a conscious/religious objection to receiving public insurance (e.g. government grants/loans for higher education, Social Security, FHA/HUD housing loans, Medicare).

Most arguments I’ve heard for opting out argue against the Social Security system. It’s not the governments job. Won’t be available when I retire. I can do a better job investing for retirement . . .

Those are all invalid arguments.

Remember, the form is asking if you have an objection to receiving public insurance. It is not asking what you think about public insurance as a whole.

Should you opt out? One question to ask yourself.

It all boiled down to this question for me.

Assume you’ve paid into the Social Security system for 50 years. Would you be okay receiving retirement benefits from the government (or any of the benefits from the other public insurance programs)?

If you answer yes to this question you have no religious or conscious reason to ethically sign the form and opt out.

“Even if I have to pay the taxes, I can never file for the benefits, since my theology will never allow me to accept them.”
~Memo #10 – Can Ministers Opt Out of Social Security?

Final Advice

The decision to opt out of social security should not be taken lightly.
~Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability

Read Form 4361. Don’t blindly accept the advice of others. Know what you are signing and saying yes to.

I highly recommend reading this article from Russell Moore for a very well argued and biblical response to whether ordained ministers/pastors should opt out.

Be sure whatever your decision, you can stand before Jesus with a clear conscious and a pure heart.

I think a great prayer in this situation is:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
~Psalm 51:10 (NIV)

A pure heart. One that is not tempted by money. A steadfast spirit. One that strives to live according to God’s moral and ethical standards.

Sources and Additional Resources

• Is it Okay for Me to Opt Out of Social Security? My Response (highly recommended)
• Memo #10 – Can Ministers Opt Out of Social Security? (read section titled A “Catch” Often Overlooked)
• Ministers Opting out of Social Security (read bottom section after “Basis for filing for an exemption…”)
• On Opting out of the Social Security System
• Opting out of Social Security

I’d love to hear your reasons for either opting out or not. Please let me know in the comments!

For two years I have met for hundreds of hours on committees. I have never written a poem about it. It is deadening to my soul. I am a thinker. A writer. A preacher. A poet and songwriter. At least these are the avenues of love and service where my heart flourishes. . . .
~John Piper

While the post itself is a great reminder about the fruit of perseverance, it was this section that resonated the most with me.

…these are the avenues of love and service where my heart flourishes…

Some things deaden your soul. Others bring your soul to life.

What are the avenues of love and service that make your heart flourish?

Take a few minutes to ponder that question for yourself.

Here is what I am . . .

I am a researcher

A running joke in college was I wouldn’t buy anything without doing research first. My friends used to say: “You wouldn’t buy a pen without researching first.” To some extent that is true. I’ve spent time researching the best pen for pen spinning before. ;)

I love to research; finding the right tool for the job, the best product for the money.

But it’s more than just tangible products or tools. It’s knowledge as well.

Talk to any expert in a specific field and you’ll learn details and intricacies you never knew existed.

Buying a tennis racquet is more than just choosing one that looks cool.

Several factors come into play. Oversize or midplus? Standard length or longer? Head heavy or head light? Stiffer or more flexible frame? Open or dense string pattern?

I flourish seeking knowledge that leads to expertise in a given topic.

If I’m going to be _____, you better believe I’m trying to be the best _____ there is.

I am an executor

No, I don’t administer the death penalty to people.

My heart/soul is probably most alive when I’m able to execute to the best of my abilities (and knowledge).

Some people are great at delegating tasks and managing people. I am not.

Give me a task/area of responsibility and it will be done better than anyone else. Period.

It goes hand-in-hand with me being a researcher. I research in order to execute.

Nothing gives me more joy than walking away from a project proud of the work I’ve done.

Proud knowing I just didn’t get the job done, but it was done well, efficiently and “the right way,” utilizing best practices.

I am a teacher

While I love to research and execute, it brings me great satisfaction when I can consolidate my research and summarize my experience into a digestible, useful blog post.

It’s no surprise that my three most viewed blog posts are the ones I’ve shared from my research and experience.

It makes me smile when I can teach others one blog post at a time.

:)

I’m curious. What makes your heart flourish?

Hit me up in the comments the answer to “I am a __________.”

So I randomly stumbled across an article called Pens for Bibles the other day. It answers the question:

What is the best type of pen to use in a Bible?

I’ve tried highlighters, dry highlighters, pencils and pens (ball point, gelly, rollerball) without being satisfied with any for underlining and taking notes.

So when I read that article, it was a light bulb moment.

The short answer (and one I am experimenting with now) are pens which use pigment ink (i.e. archive quality pens).

Here are some of the key benefits:

• Minimal bleed-through on thin paper (i.e. those used in Bibles)
• Extremely fine nib/tip sizes (lets you write small while still being readable)
• Water proof (accidental coffee spills anyone?)
• Quick drying (great for left-handed people)
• Fade resistant (you’ll still be able to read it 25 years from now)

Apparently the chemical properties of pigment ink allow it to dry on the surface of paper as opposed to soaking into the paper. That combined with the fine nib sizes minimizes how much your writing, highlighting/underlining is visible on the other side of the page.

Those are the two biggest wins when writing on very thin Bible paper. Oh, and the ability to write legibly in very tight margins. ;)

From the Pens for Bibles post and comments, it looks like these are some of the main pigment ink-based pens.

• Sakura of America: Pigma Micron
• Prismacolor: Premier Fine Line Marker
• Staedtler: Pigment Liner
• Zig: Millenium
• COPIC: Multiliner SP

Of those pigment ink pens, the ones that were easiest to find locally were the Pigma Micron (local arts/craft store) and the Premier Fine Line Marker (Jo-Ann). They also seem to be the two most common online as well.

My Experience and Recommendation

I went with the Pigma Microns because my local arts/craft store had a sweet display with all the different colors/nib sizes available for individual purchase. So I was able to try them out beforehand and see which colors and nib sizes I preferred.

It was like being able to sample the different candies in a candy store!

Use the Sakura of America Store Locator and check the Pigma Micron and Micron Mega Display boxes to find a store with a similar display.

There’s an overwhelming number of nib sizes with a naming convention that doesn’t make any sense. Somebody want to explain the rationale behind it? ;)

Based on my tests, the best nib sizes to use for writing notes in your Bible are the 005, 01 or 02. The 03 would be fine for underlining but just a bit too thick for writing notes.

The Pens for Bibles article recommends 005 for note-taking and 01 for underlining.

I’d prefer to write and underline with one size (efficiency baby!), so I wanted to choose a single nib size. I ruled out the 005 because the line is too fine for my tastes. And the nib is so tiny I’m afraid I’d break it.

Between the 01 and 02, I chose the thinner 01. Yup, that extra 0.05 mm makes a difference. ;)

I like my underlines to be noticeable on a page, but not overpowering. Since I went with a colored pen, I thought the thinner 01 would be the better choice. Let the color itself be what’s noticeable and not the thickness of the line (if that makes any sense).

The thinner nib also helps reduce what shows through on the opposite side of the page.

So that’s that. We’ll see how it goes . . .

But I’m confident.

I have been using a fine-tip Pentel R.S.V.P. pen for notes and underlines. While it has been decent, it pales in comparison to the Pigma Micron.

Unlike the R.S.V.P., the Pigma Micron makes it effortless to write small, legible characters and consistent underlines.

Being able to underline without the ink skipping brings a smile to my face. :)

I’m curious to know how you approach reading your Bible? Particularly, how do you ensure you’re maximizing what you read?

Back in college, Chi Alpha (the campus fellowship I was involved with) did an outreach during the week of freshmen orientation. I remember being out there one day handing out Pop-Ice wearing my Chi Alpha t-shirt.

A guy came up to me and my Pop-Ice cohort curious to know more about the group. Part way through the discussion he saw we had 2 Corinthians 5:20 on our shirts and asked what the verse said.

I looked at my cohort. She looked at me. We stared at the guy blankly.

We had no clue what 2 Corinthians 5:20 said.

Needless to say I immediately went and memorized that verse.

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV)
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

My motivation for wanted to regularly read through the entire Bible is similar. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to profess and stand for something you are unfamiliar with.

So for that reason I’ve read through the Bible twice (mostly) within the past two years. But I’ve gotten to the point where I need to shake things up a bit, which is why I’m soliciting different ideas from you.

There are a few goals I’m looking to achieve with my Bible reading.

1. Regularly reading through the entire Bible.
2. Applying what I read in my daily life.
3. Learning more about the Bible.

I’d like to read fast enough that I can familiarize myself with the main characters, history, flow of events, major milestones, etc. of the Bible.

But I’d also like to read slow enough I give God sufficient opportunity to speak to me about what I read.

And all of that should be rooted in sound doctrine/theology and knowledge of the Word. So I’d enjoy reading a good commentary on top of all of that.

So! How do you approach reading the Bible?

I was flipping through some of my old documents and ran across this collection of poems. I wrote them for my mom last year as a Christmas present.

Contrary to popular belief, I do occasional give Christmas presents. ;)

Each poem has a different rhyming scheme. I don’t remember which is which, but Wikipedia was my source. ;)

I’ve been banging my head against the same wall for awhile now. It happens to be the wall that is Celebration Church Online.

It is my ministry.

One that I can’t help but believe God has uniquely equipped me to handle. The opportunity to disciple the nations. An opportunity that I am passionate about; one that excites me. An area that my heart longs to be fully invested in.

But it is a ministry that, despite my best intentions, has not developed beyond the state it started at back in September 2008.

I keep asking myself: can you be passionate about something that doesn’t bear any fruit?

It is that question/wall that I haven’t been able to get past. It’s caused me to doubt whether I’m even the right guy for the job. To wonder if I’m really passionate about it or if it’s just something I’m trying to believe into existence.

All I see is failure at the lack of fruit.

Can you be passionate about something that doesn’t bear any fruit?

As it turns out, that question is about 12 steps ahead of where I’m at. It’s not the right question to be asking right now.

While my sole focus has been on “fruits of my ministry” it has missed the fruits of God’s ministry in my life.

Could it be that all this head banging isn’t because I’ve failed or I’m not passionate but an elaborate plot by God to open my eyes and have me take a hard look at myself? To put less of a focus on what my ministry is doing, but on what God is doing within me?

Because that’s what it sure feels like.

It has been a time of re-evaluating who I am.

What does this compact, Asian fellow named Alex Tran bring to the table? How does his Asian afro hair, chicken legs and crooked pinkie combine into a person that is perfectly prepared to serve God’s Kingdom?

Maybe this is a coming of age post? ;)

The scene in the Matrix where Neo realizes he’s the One.

I look over my shoulder and I see myself from a couple months ago. There’s a clear distinction between who I was then and who I am now.

Today, I have a much keener sense of my spiritual identity. I am more confident at what I bring to the table.

To my Church Online peeps

You rock!

When I talk about Church Online not bearing any fruit, I’m talking about my inability to expand Church Online past what it’s been since the start. The lack of new initiatives, the lack of spreading the word about its existence, the lack of providing a better service experience, etc.

Really, the lack of stewardship on my part.

The lack of fruit does not mean lack of your life or others being changed by God.

I know that Church Online has touched lives and brought some of you closer to God. I don’t doubt the spiritual fruit that has come from Church Online.

To chat with some of you and to be able to see that relationship with God deepen has been a great privilege. I truly cherish knowing Church Online was able to play a small part in that.

When I feel like I’m failing and don’t see any growth over the past year, you are a constant reminder that Church Online is bearing spiritual fruit; that fruit isn’t always measured in what new initiatives you launch.

Dear BlueLily, Janet, Kathy, Becky and everyone else touched by Church Online,

Thank you for being an encouragement to me.

I love you all!
-Alex

Same goes to Sarah, Brent, Becca, Daniel and Tova for putting up with my antics. ;)

Here’s the final part to Christine Caine’s talk to the staff at Celebration Church. Read Part 1 and 2 here and here.

Passion is Not a Job or Obligation

• You’ll go further on fumes of passion than one million dollars.

• With passion, you’ll get more buy in from people and volunteers.

• At this level, no one is going to stir passion up for you.
  • Got to learn to do it on your own.

• Need a gut-level gladness.

• Passion is a heart issue. It is internally regulated.
  • Colossians 3:23
  • If the heart is established, it cannot be shaken.
    • Only things that can be shaken will be.

It’s About the Bigger Picture

• Not about position in church.
  • Instead a “whatever attitude.” In it for the bigger picture.

• Constantly keep bigger picture in mind. Constantly die to self.

Don’t Live a Compartmentalized Life

This point is related to how do you juggle so many things at one time. If you’re involved in full-time ministry, sometimes it’s hard to separate “church life” from “home life.” Christine touches on this point; saying not to view your life as compartmentalized.

• Your life isn’t compartmentalized (e.g. church life, spouse life, extracurricular life, etc.), it’s interconnected.

• There’s no conflict when your heart is established (interconnected, not compartmentalized).
  • You are not taking away from one or the other.

• You don’t have multiple lives (e.g. church, spouse, friend). You have one life.
  • A life in Christ. Everything orbits around that.

• Don’t build extraordinary churches on ordinary commitment.

You Lose Passion When . . .

Brian Houston reminds the staff at Hillsong that he would take passion, an attitude of gratitude and submission over gifts and talents any day.

• Get bored.
  • You forget your first love (Revelation 2:4).
  • You think it’s all about you and not the bigger picture.

• Isolate yourself or become lonely.

• Insecure
  • In a church that ebbs and flows, your ability to be flexible and navigate those ebbs determines your longevity on the team.
  • Lots of people leave because of insecurity; they’re not getting the spotlight.
    • Equivalent of an adolescent temper tantrum.
  • Stay secure in Christ.

• Laziness
  • Psalm 127:1
  • There’s always work involved in building God’s house.

• Procrastination

• Lust
  • Desire to have something that’s not yours to have (now or ever).
  • Keep eyes in your own lane.