The purpose of this blog is to be mentally challenging, emotionally drawing and spiritually inspiring, with this in mind, I thought it appropriate to spend a moment exploring the topic of Easter. Many find this celebration to be fairly confusing, especially with all the chocolate bunnies who lay eggs? And the "Jesus died for our sins" line we hear over and over again. So for a second I shall step back and reconsider exactly why we celebrate some ones death, which seems reasonably odd.
"Jesus died for our sins"
So first things first, what is sin?
The Bible tells us that sin is our rejection of God's authority over us... So what does that look like in everyday 2011? Well the Bible tells us in Romans 3:10-12, that "... No one is righteous, no, not even one; no one seeks for God. All have turned away; together become worthless" we have not followed God's ruling word in our lives, "...no one does good not even one". So I'm afraid all the best, nicest people, and all the worst, nastiest people you know, we all sit in the same box. And it's not a rad box... Its the box of sin... worthlessness... greed... rebellion... Sin is not obeying God; it's an attitude, an action, a decision, and ultimately a lifestyle choice that we've all made. According to the Bible, God views this rebellion as humans setting themselves up as their own god, rejecting his rule.
So how does an all good, righteous and perfect God respond to this rejection?
Not well... The Bible tells us that for God to be God, he cannot allow this rebellion to continue against him, there is just punishment that needs to take place. According to the Bible "... the wages of sin are death" (Romans 6:23) and "we were dead in our transgressions", so this death is a spiritual death, being cut off from God without any hope of return, the Bible tells us that we are in a hopeless and failed state that we, ourselves cannot escape from. So far not looking good for us then, I mean the Bible describes humans who do not follow Gods rule as dead... we all reject God soooo we're all dead... unrad... dead people can't save themselves, it's a bit like the "game over screen".
BUT then there's a guy called Jesus, no ordinary guy, he is God's only Son. Because of his interesting birth and his relentless obedience to God, he is the perfect chap, he lives the perfect rebellion free life, he is the exception to the sinful world "he committed no sin" 1 Peter 2:22. So he is the only one who is on form with God. His awesomeness perfectly matches our unawesomeness, his righteousness equals the absolute value of our sin. Now here's the shocker... As stated earlier, our rebellion requires just punishment, so God in an act of incredible mercy saves us through plonking the punishment on Jesus, Jesus, obediently goes to the cross to relieve us from our sin, to lift our rebellious status from us. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross" 1 Peter 2:24... Intense... And according to the Bible, Gods huge rescue plan from the first week of creation. So Jesus has taken our place of punishment.
BUT that's not all, and this is where Easter gets exciting... every one dies, many where crucified, but Jesus does not stay dead. He rises. Three days after one of the most brutal killing forces ever to rome (excuse the pun) the earth have done their worst, Jesus makes a come back, the stone is rolled away and he lives! This is odd, I mean loads of people have died, statistically I'm guessing that's the norm, according to the bible... Jesus came back...That's rad, he walks around, has a fish braai, is seen by over 500 people, many of who die because of their testamony, some of whom write books about it, Jesus lives, and after some time, goes back to mellow with God. For a little more on the evidence of Jesus' resurrection this is a great link: http://vimeo.com/7412188
So ultimately the Bible calls for a response to this message, it calls for us to trust in Jesus for life, Jesus has now conquered death, and he is set up as the giver of life "In his great mercy he has given us birth into a new hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 1 Peter 1:3 (The word Christ here, is not a surname, its a work used for Gods promised king). In this way we are free to be in relationship with God, to live with God, as our rebellion lies dead, and our new upgraded rebellion free life is raised in Jesus! Happy Easter! Jesus has saved us!
Thus the choice the Bible gives us:
1. We can accept this grace, this free forgiveness bought by Jesus' life, we can confess our sin to him, stop rejecting Gods rule and follow him.
- We are promised that we will be purified by God, seen as righteous and given life eternal
2. We can reject this message, perhaps do our own thing, or try our very hardest to be good enough for God, fail and accept God's righteous punishment. The Bible doesn't leave room for a salvation independent of Jesus, its God's rescue plan.
Easter is therefore well summarized by: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believe in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in his name is condemned already in the name of the only Son of God" John 3:16-19
Monday, April 25, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Awkward moment #3
Well, since writing my last interview post, I've been inspired to share another incredible interview experience that went down a few weeks ago...
Again I will not mention which firm, for fear of, well I'm not sure, all I know is that some how the English are less inclined to have a giggle then my South African or American contingent. What I will mention is that their recruitment process is beastly:
Firstly you need an entry interview, more of a "chat" with one of the employees, just to make sure that you know what your getting yourself into, then, if you prove to be in someway an acceptable human specimen, you are invited to compose a variety of online essays, enlist your details, send through a cover letter and CV.
After explaining a summarised version of your life story, you are invited to the second round.
A phone interview, where the poor helpless graduate has to jump through intellectual hoops to impress the interviewer who is more Hannibal Lector then Anne Robinson, on topics as diverse as the movements in the Spanish economy over the last 5 years to the price of peas in the lost city of Atlanta. Another week passes before you hear if you've made it to the third round.
The third round is an assessment day, basically a 6 hour set of tasks, tests and ultimately a 50 minute interview with two analysts who ask the poor graduate to explain their life story once more, and amongst other things, explain FX Options, and Credit Default Swaps in a language their gran would understand, that was the easy bit... So far so good...
The final stage, where I came undone in a large way, is a 40 minute interview with the head of the analytics department and with some HR person. Honestly walking into this round, for the first time in the process, I felt quite confident, I had done my homework, work had provided an equities analyst to train great answers into me, I held economic current affairs in the palm of my hand... Then the unthinkable happened.
Before we get there though, I feel it's necessary to explain an important concept, developed by a team of geniuses in South Africa known simply as the P-UNIT, who "pun for a free living". According to P-UNIT legend, there exists amongst us, specifically blessed females, who essentially have the rare combination of incredible beauty and and and well um ya, suffice to say they leave their male victims both speechless and giggly at the same time... these individuals are known simply as "Sim girls". Firstly know that they reduce men to a language known as "Sim talk", named after the jumbled collection of mumbles not dissimilar to language that the Sims people use to communicate in the computer game... and secondly that they are exceedingly rare.
As you might have gathered at this point the random HR person was my Sim girl... one of the first I've encountered, in fact I was starting to doubt in their existence, but yes, the work smitten comes to mind, although perhaps, when she recalls the events she might use less pleasant words... In short I don't think I made a huge amount of sense during that interview, I am aware that there was some blank staring, and a large unstoppable grin on my face, the particulars are rather hazy, I'm unsure if the head of the analytics department even joined us. I remember her introducing herself as Hannah, and I think at that point I said that I was Hannah and she said "no your Richard" and I said "yes, that's ok". There certainly was some poor attempts at humour and certainly the occasional blind stabs at the English language, who knows.
I did receive a rejection email promptly the next day, but know this, that may be the best interview I ever have... ever.
Again I will not mention which firm, for fear of, well I'm not sure, all I know is that some how the English are less inclined to have a giggle then my South African or American contingent. What I will mention is that their recruitment process is beastly:
Firstly you need an entry interview, more of a "chat" with one of the employees, just to make sure that you know what your getting yourself into, then, if you prove to be in someway an acceptable human specimen, you are invited to compose a variety of online essays, enlist your details, send through a cover letter and CV.
After explaining a summarised version of your life story, you are invited to the second round.
A phone interview, where the poor helpless graduate has to jump through intellectual hoops to impress the interviewer who is more Hannibal Lector then Anne Robinson, on topics as diverse as the movements in the Spanish economy over the last 5 years to the price of peas in the lost city of Atlanta. Another week passes before you hear if you've made it to the third round.
The third round is an assessment day, basically a 6 hour set of tasks, tests and ultimately a 50 minute interview with two analysts who ask the poor graduate to explain their life story once more, and amongst other things, explain FX Options, and Credit Default Swaps in a language their gran would understand, that was the easy bit... So far so good...
The final stage, where I came undone in a large way, is a 40 minute interview with the head of the analytics department and with some HR person. Honestly walking into this round, for the first time in the process, I felt quite confident, I had done my homework, work had provided an equities analyst to train great answers into me, I held economic current affairs in the palm of my hand... Then the unthinkable happened.
Before we get there though, I feel it's necessary to explain an important concept, developed by a team of geniuses in South Africa known simply as the P-UNIT, who "pun for a free living". According to P-UNIT legend, there exists amongst us, specifically blessed females, who essentially have the rare combination of incredible beauty and and and well um ya, suffice to say they leave their male victims both speechless and giggly at the same time... these individuals are known simply as "Sim girls". Firstly know that they reduce men to a language known as "Sim talk", named after the jumbled collection of mumbles not dissimilar to language that the Sims people use to communicate in the computer game... and secondly that they are exceedingly rare.
As you might have gathered at this point the random HR person was my Sim girl... one of the first I've encountered, in fact I was starting to doubt in their existence, but yes, the work smitten comes to mind, although perhaps, when she recalls the events she might use less pleasant words... In short I don't think I made a huge amount of sense during that interview, I am aware that there was some blank staring, and a large unstoppable grin on my face, the particulars are rather hazy, I'm unsure if the head of the analytics department even joined us. I remember her introducing herself as Hannah, and I think at that point I said that I was Hannah and she said "no your Richard" and I said "yes, that's ok". There certainly was some poor attempts at humour and certainly the occasional blind stabs at the English language, who knows.
I did receive a rejection email promptly the next day, but know this, that may be the best interview I ever have... ever.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
new posts to arrive tomorrow!
New post prepped and preparer to be launched tomorrow, it is in its final stage of editing and is set to rock the blogging world as a whole... Well not quite, but quite positively heading up to Birmingham this weekend, so at last I should get my camera back, which is great,expect photos :)
Untill tomorrow
Rich
Untill tomorrow
Rich
Friday, April 8, 2011
The 3 minute interview
Over the last month and a bit I have been working for a brokerage firm, and although it has been really great experience and I've learnt loads about the financial markets the work they have for me to do is drying up... which is great, its like being on holiday but in a suit everyday,
So my official job at the moment is tea maker and spreadsheet format man, but recently the boss has set me paper jet making assignments so that I can really "quantify the paper work that I've been exposed to" on my CV, I think he was sufficiently impressed when I included aeronautical engineer as my job title.
They have opened some really great doors for me though, loads of interviews with firms that I wouldn't be able to speak with otherwise, and they let me head through during work hours which is rad. But the problem with opened doors that should stay closed is that the prospective employers are perhaps at times pressured into meeting me, having either no position for me, or more specifically expecting someone with work experience or just a completely different qualification... doh
This has meant for really useful interview experience, and, and more importantly, some absolutely unbelievably awesomely incredibly awkward moments... I'll dive right in and say that last week I had a 3 minute interview.
I walking in. I was greeted. We sat down. He looked up at me, he looked down at my CV. He put his pen in his pocket and said, "hmmmm, so tell me about your experience in international sales...", I said, "well firstly I am from South Africa, so all my experience is international to you..." I chuckled, he did not. His eye brows folded together as he starred seriously at my CV, then, slicing an awkward pause in half, I said "well, I have done some promotions work, I have worked for various financial providers in South Africa, informing clients as to their various investment decisions" (I failed to mention that this took the form of several leaflets that I handed out in the rain, not an important detail).
He asked if I had any actual sales experience at all, at this point I went large, with gusto, I said "yes, I worked for I&J selling their hake surprise boxes." He looked both confused and unhappy at the same time, so I went on, "I had to wear the gum boots and full fishing outfit and everything, and I did really well, I broke company records", at this I let out a smile, I thought this might at the very least help him feel some form of pity for me, he did not. He tapped his pen on the table, about to give his final verdict. He said, "so yeah there's nothing here for you, we only consider candidates with at least 2 years work experience". He stood up to show me out and delivered a final nicety, "this isn't a no, its a not yet, I would love to see you in 6 months if you spend that time in sales, we can afford a gamble", I muttered something about risk-reward payoffs but apparently that was unconvincing so, headed back to the suit filled holiday...
But as they say, work your butt off till you get the power to fire all the mean people :) that's the plan
So my official job at the moment is tea maker and spreadsheet format man, but recently the boss has set me paper jet making assignments so that I can really "quantify the paper work that I've been exposed to" on my CV, I think he was sufficiently impressed when I included aeronautical engineer as my job title.
They have opened some really great doors for me though, loads of interviews with firms that I wouldn't be able to speak with otherwise, and they let me head through during work hours which is rad. But the problem with opened doors that should stay closed is that the prospective employers are perhaps at times pressured into meeting me, having either no position for me, or more specifically expecting someone with work experience or just a completely different qualification... doh
This has meant for really useful interview experience, and, and more importantly, some absolutely unbelievably awesomely incredibly awkward moments... I'll dive right in and say that last week I had a 3 minute interview.
I walking in. I was greeted. We sat down. He looked up at me, he looked down at my CV. He put his pen in his pocket and said, "hmmmm, so tell me about your experience in international sales...", I said, "well firstly I am from South Africa, so all my experience is international to you..." I chuckled, he did not. His eye brows folded together as he starred seriously at my CV, then, slicing an awkward pause in half, I said "well, I have done some promotions work, I have worked for various financial providers in South Africa, informing clients as to their various investment decisions" (I failed to mention that this took the form of several leaflets that I handed out in the rain, not an important detail).
He asked if I had any actual sales experience at all, at this point I went large, with gusto, I said "yes, I worked for I&J selling their hake surprise boxes." He looked both confused and unhappy at the same time, so I went on, "I had to wear the gum boots and full fishing outfit and everything, and I did really well, I broke company records", at this I let out a smile, I thought this might at the very least help him feel some form of pity for me, he did not. He tapped his pen on the table, about to give his final verdict. He said, "so yeah there's nothing here for you, we only consider candidates with at least 2 years work experience". He stood up to show me out and delivered a final nicety, "this isn't a no, its a not yet, I would love to see you in 6 months if you spend that time in sales, we can afford a gamble", I muttered something about risk-reward payoffs but apparently that was unconvincing so, headed back to the suit filled holiday...
But as they say, work your butt off till you get the power to fire all the mean people :) that's the plan
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Wikileaks eat your heart out
I recognise that this sensational blog has been fairly quiet over the last few weeks, so I've decided to release a sneak peak into the next two months... Ironically, although I am unaware of what country I'll be in, where I'll be living or what I'll be doing in two months, you might be glad to know that there is a plan for the blog!
Inspired by a range of interviews at information warehouses, such a BMI and Bloomberg, and through my work in the brokerage firm, I've decided to compile a social behaviour study. The study will be of an empirical nature and should be really quite boring, I'll try make it interesting...
In addition its been 2 months and 6 days since my last surf,in fact it's been 2 months since I swam! I'm addicted to water, so expect a complete mental melt down over the next few weeks, who knows what I'll do, but I'll take photos promise. In fact there's a long flight of steps outside my flat and a very tempting surfing board shaped ironing board it the flat... expect silliness!
So there's your sneak peak, in retrospect it doesn't sound half as exciting as it did in my head... hmmmm well I might burn something, or sneak into the royal wedding, we shall see! Toodles for now
Inspired by a range of interviews at information warehouses, such a BMI and Bloomberg, and through my work in the brokerage firm, I've decided to compile a social behaviour study. The study will be of an empirical nature and should be really quite boring, I'll try make it interesting...
In addition its been 2 months and 6 days since my last surf,in fact it's been 2 months since I swam! I'm addicted to water, so expect a complete mental melt down over the next few weeks, who knows what I'll do, but I'll take photos promise. In fact there's a long flight of steps outside my flat and a very tempting surfing board shaped ironing board it the flat... expect silliness!
So there's your sneak peak, in retrospect it doesn't sound half as exciting as it did in my head... hmmmm well I might burn something, or sneak into the royal wedding, we shall see! Toodles for now
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)