Note of Everything: September 2012

I Declare

The words we speak set the course for our life. If we want to know what we're going to be like in five years, listen to the words you are saying about yourself today.

Declare!

Now we can take charge of our future in faith, God's powerful Word over our life and watch our surroundings change in incredible ways. We will move forward to a promising future from the fruit of our words!

Nick Vujicic

Evangelist Nick Vujicic, who spoke at Saddleback Church in Calif. on Sunday, was born with neither arms nor legs, and questioned God for eight years why it was so. The answer changed his life, and through him that of tens of thousands of others.

(Photo: Life Without Limbs)
Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms or legs, is the author of the new book Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life.

For the now 30-year-old Nick, founding president and CEO of the nonprofit organization Life Without Limbs, the most important thing in life was to understand why God made him without arms and legs.
Speaking at Pastor Rick Warren's church in Lake Forest on Sunday evening, the inspirational speaker said he spent eight years asking God, "Why? Why was I born this way? I don't understand how can You say You love me when You allow me to stay in this pain."
Vujicic, who has been living in California since 2007, was born in Brisbane, Australia. His parents – Pastor Boris Vujicic and nurse Dushka Vujicic – were not given any medical explanation or warning about his birth with neither arms nor legs. But Nick got the answer to his desperate prayers.
John 9:1-3 spoke to him in a special way. The New Testament portion reads: "As he (Jesus) went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned,' said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.'"
The Life Without Limbs author described his feelings after reading these verses. "I got goosebumps on my skin I don't even have," he told the congregants. "And I had faith because I understood something. You see, all I wanted to know was that God knew what He was doing with me."

By the age of 19, Nick started to fulfill his dream of being able to encourage other people and bring them the Gospel of Jesus through motivational speaking and sharing his testimony about how God changed his life and gave him a future and a hope.
The desire to have arms and legs has remained, Vujicic admitted. Initially, he thought, "Lord, if you give me arms and legs, I'll go around the world and share your power with the world." He said he still has ups and downs in life. "I am just like you."
Vujicic said he has failed God every single day, but has relied on Philippians 1:6: "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Vujicic recalled he and dozens of his Christian friends once prayed for 90 minutes for his arms and legs in a farm in a jungle in India. They made arms and legs with clay, and prayed it turn into flesh and bone. It didn't happen, but he had peace in his heart as he saw an eagle soaring in the sky throughout those 90 minutes. He said it was as if God was smiling, and was happy he had the faith to pray.
"Please give me arms and legs. But if You don't give me arms and legs, I trust You." This has been Vujicic's prayer. He said his commitment to Jesus is "to want His plan, and not my plan ... even when I don't understand."
You are praying for something, but what if God says "no" to that? he asked. "Is He still God? Yes. Will He waste your pain? No." He quoted Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Vujicic, who has traveled around the world, sharing his story with millions of people, said he's grateful to God for saving him from the two biggest disabilities: sin and death.
He said when he was 10 he wanted to commit suicide, and wanted to see someone like him so that he wouldn't be alone. Five years ago in California, he finally met a baby named Daniel, who too was born without arms and legs ... "exactly like me." "Not getting a miracle, I can be a miracle to Daniel ... an older brother of Daniel his whole life ... encourage him."
Nick said if he truly lived without arms and legs throughout his life "just so I can hug Daniel in heaven, it's all worth it."
"I found the purpose of my existence, and also the purpose of my circumstance. There's a purpose for why you're in the fire," he says on his ministry's website. "If God can use a man without arms and legs to be His hands and feet, then He will certainly use any willing heart!"

Coming Through Depression - Cheryl Allen

“When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:17-18

Canadian singer and inspirational speaker Cheryl Allen suffered debilitating depression until she found her true calling in Christ. Now she ministers to thousands through her music and testimony. Watch her inspiring story here.

Has anyone ever told you that you see the world in black and white?

I do. I usually think simple. I'm white and you black. Does that mean I see only what I want to in the world and that I miss out on the details?
After thinking more deeply, I realized that it's not as simple as I thought. The world has a spectrum ranging from red to violet. I should see people as who they are, not what they are.
It's not easy to understand people when I have been wounded, though. I need to forgive them first then I can see the world in many colours.

Development Economics: How Improving Financial Systems Can Help Fight Global Poverty

Christian temperament theorists Tim LaHaye

Christian temperament theorists Tim LaHaye and Richard Arno (who I was introduced into temperament theory through) use biblical examples of the temperaments (neither types Jesus, however!)

LaHaye has his temperament blends, which he probably does not assign to any type. But if you take the "primary" temperament as Interaction Styles (I/E + S/N + T/F or J/P groups); and the "secondary temperament as the "Keirseyan" temperament (S+J/P; N+T/F), then we can derive type from it, and from our discussions here, it seems to be fairly accurate. Just in case, I can reverse primary and secondary as well, in lowercase.

LaHaye:
SanChlor: Peter (ENTP, estp)
SanMel: David (ESFJ, istp)
SanPhleg: Apollos (ENFP, isfp)
ChlorSan James (ESTP, entp)
ChlorMel: Paul (ESTJ, intj)
ChlorPhleg: Titus (ENFJ, intp)
MelSan: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah (ISTP, esfj)
MelChlor: Luke, Moses (INTJ, estj)
MelPhleg: John (INFJ, isfj)
PhlegSan: Timothy (ISFP, enfp)
PhlegChlor: Abraham (INTP, enfj)
PhlegMel: Barnabas (ISFJ, infj)

Arno does not give blends or even spacify the temperament area, except in one case, but rather gives the general temperament, which may this be the "pure" temperament:

Moses: Melancholy (ISTJ, or other IST/INJ, or ISJ)
Solomon: Melancholy (ISTJ, or other IST/INJ, or ISJ)
John: Melancholy (ISTJ, or other IST/INJ, or ISJ)
Paul: Choleric (ENTJ, or other ENJ or EST)
Peter: Sanguine (in Inclusion; i.e. "Get Things Going") ENP/ESF
Nehemiah: Phlegmatic (INFP, or other ISF or INF)
Martha: Supine (INFP, or other ISF or INF)

Note of Everything

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