Check out this Download NordhoffMovie.MPG .
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Thanks to our friend Hector for providing the photo and video.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Nordhoff Is Famous
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Pre-Transformation Measurements
Here are my pre-transformation numbers:
| PRE-TRANSFORMATION | MEASUREMENT | GOAL |
| 30-Jul-08 | DATE | Oct-08 |
| 202.5 | WEIGHT | 188.5 |
| 22.5% | BODY FAT % | 13.5% |
| 84 | RESTING HEART RATE | 65 |
| 107/77 | BLOOD PRESSURE | 120/80 |
| 174 | CHOLESTEROL | 150 |
| 5.3 | CORONARY RISK RATIO | 4 |
| 39 | WAIST | 34 |
| 33 | HDL | 45 |
| 106 | LDL | 105 |
| 173 | Triglycerides | 145 |
So basically, I'm fat. Okay...there, I said it.
You'll notice my goals on the very right highlighted in yellow. I will post my progress in the easy to measure areas: Weight, Body Fat % (I have calipers at home) and Waist. At the end of the 12 weeks, I'll also have some blood work done. Then, I plan to post the final results.
Note: this is not meant to be a selfish endeavor, although it might appear that way. In all seriousness, I've been very lazy and a slacker when it comes to taking care of the body God gave me. It's not something I'm proud of.
Cheer me on with some encouragement if you want...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Strength Goals
On October 27, 2008:
- I will lose 20 pounds of fat and gain 6 pounds of muscle.
- I will lose 5 inches off my waist.
- Food no longer controls me.
- My heart is as healthy as an 18 year old!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Strength Vision
I am strong-mentally, physically and spiritually. I am resisting temptations in all of these areas. I am choosing resourcefulness over laziness. I am choosing strength over sluggishness. I am choosing Christ and His glory over anything else. This includes His glory in my body! I am parenting, working, loving, reading and exercising strong. I am picking friends that encourage me. I am making good choices all the time by slowing down and thinking smart. I am optimistic about life and after-life. I’m beginning with the end in mind. I am taking every day on as if it’s my last – living like I am dying!
Strength For Life
These last few years of eating, binging, eating even more, failed diets and even greater eating still have had an effect on my body. Later this week, I'm going to take 'official' measurements, but I already know I'm over 205 pounds and way too much body fat.
During these next 3 months, I'm not planning a trip or doing anything that could distract me from making a transformation in my body and mind. So, no more excuses. I'm always hopeful when I start a workout program or eating plan, then I tend to lose interest or motivation. I've made a commitment to finish strong this time.
Before I actually started the transformation, I've been doing the Base Camp program in the book. For 12 days, I'm eating no wheat, no cows milk or sugars. Plus, I'm eating tons of veggies, fruits, nuts and healthy meats - as much as I want. I'm sleeping 7-8 hours a night. I'm also drinking tons of water. Plus, I'm doing a light workout 3x per week just to keep myself fit. The routine is meant to reboot your system and prepare it for the Transformation phase.
I'm on Day 8 of Base Camp. Days 1-3 were tough. I could feel my body weakening for lack of sugar and breads! I was craving junk and fighting off weakness. I also couldn't sleep well the first few nights. I slept 7-8 hours, but it was light sleep. Now, I'm coasting. I can much more easily resist sugars. I do crave breads and cereal every now and then, but I'm confident I will complete the task. I'm sleeping like a baby - snoring away!
I might start a link on my page to go directly to the pages that cover my transformation. Look for that link somewhere on this page sometime soon. I will post my measurements, photos (if I dare) and updates regularly on my progress there. Please send encouragement to me along the way...I could use it.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Things I Have Learned
Things I Have Learned
By John Piper March 28, 2007
Since my father died on March 6, I have been looking through his papers. I found a small sheet with the following fifteen counsels, titled “Things I Have Learned.” He didn't make most of these up. Some of them go back to his college days when he was absorbing the pithy wisdom of Bob Jones Senior. They have again confirmed the obvious: I owe my father more than I can ever remember. The comment after each one is mine.
Things I Have Learned
1. The right road always leads to the right place; therefore, get on the right road and go as far as you can on it.
My father was totally persuaded that wrong means do not lead to right ends. Or, more positively, he was persuaded that living in the right way—that is, doing the right things—are means that inevitably lead to where God wants us to be. This is why he told me, when I asked about God’s leading in my life, “Son, keep the room clean where you are, and in God’s time, the door to the next room will open.”
2. There is only one thing to do about anything; that is the right thing. Do right.
This is what one might say to a person perplexed by a difficult situation whose outcome is unknown. The person might say, “I just don’t know what to do about this.” It is not useless to be told: Do the right thing. That may not tell you exactly which good thing to do, but it does clear the air and rule out a few dozen bad ideas.
3. Happiness is not found by looking for it. You stumble over happiness on the road to duty.
My, my, my. How was John Piper born from this? I would never say this. The main reason is that the Bible commands us to pursue our joy repeatedly. “Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice.” “Delight yourself in the Lord.” I think what he meant was: 1) Joy is always in something. Joy itself is not the something. So we seek joy in Christ. Not just joy in general. 2) When duty is hard and we do not feel joy in doing it, we should still do it, and pray that in the doing it the joy would be given. But what we need to make plain is that duty cannot be contrasted with joy, because joy is a biblical duty.
4. The door to success swings on the hinges of opposition.
Remarkably, this saying implies that opposition is not just a natural accompaniment or antecedent of success, but that it is a means by which the door opens. One can think of many biblical examples. The opposition of Joseph’s brothers opened the door to his leadership in Egypt. The taxing of the empire opened the door to getting the Messiah born in Bethlehem, not Nazareth, and thus fulfilling prophecy. The betrayal of Judas opened the door to the salvation of the world.
5. God in the right place in my life fixes every other relationship of life (Matthew 6:33).
I wonder if this was tucked away in my mind so that unknown to me it controlled my analogy of the solar system to our many-faceted lives. If God is the blazing center of the solar system of our lives, then all the planets will be held in their proper orbit. But if not, everything goes awry.
6. It is never right to get the right thing in the wrong way—like good grades, wealth, power, position. Don’t sacrifice your principles.
Again, he hammers away at don’t use bad means for good ends. Be a principled, not a pragmatic, person. O how we need to hear this today. Churches need to be principled, not endlessly adapting to culture. Persons need to make a promise and keep it no matter how much it hurts.
7. It is a sin to do less than your best. It is wrong to do [merely] well.
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10 ). But be careful. Sometimes the “best” is a B+ sermon and spending time with your child. In other words, “best” always involves more decisions than the one you are making at the moment. That one means many other things are being left undone. So “best” is always the whole thing, not just the detail of the moment.
8. It is wrong to be yoked to one who refuses the yoke of Christ.
Don’t marry an unbeliever (1 Corinthians 7:39). Not all relationships with unbelievers are ruled out. Otherwise we could not obey Jesus’ command to love them and bless them. But “yoke” implies a connectedness that either governs where we go or constrains where they go. And you cannot constrain faith in Jesus. It is free.
9. The part of your character that is deficient is the part that needs attention.
This is the counterpoint to the advice: Go with your strengths. There is truth in both. Yes, be encouraged by every evidence of God’s grace in your life, and use your gifts and graces for his glory. But you will become smug and vain if you do not keep your deficiencies before you and work on them.
10. Don’t quit. Finish the job. God can’t use a quitter.
Warning: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). Promise: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
11. Anything you do that hinders your progress for God is wrong.
O how thankful I am that this was the dominant way my father pressed me to pursue my sanctification. He did not mainly impose lists of don’ts on me, though we had them. And they were clear. Mainly he said: Maximize your progress in knowing and serving God. That ruled out a hundred foolish behaviors, some bad and some uselessly innocent.
12. Beware of any society in which you feel compelled to put a bushel over your testimony.
This implies that you can go into a group of people who are evil if you are willing to open your mouth and take a stand for Jesus and righteousness. Nevertheless, 1 Corinthians 15:33 stands: “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’”
13. It isn’t enough to be good. Be good for something. The essence of Christianity is not a passionless purity.
This is what I have meant in talking about a merely avoidance ethic. Don’t just think of righteousness or holiness in terms of what you avoid, but what you do. As my father said in another place: Don’t be a don’ter; be a doer.
14. Positive living produces negative effect[s].
This is wise counsel that affirmation of the good always implies negation of the bad. If you think you can live your life without negating anything, you have lost touch with reality. “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9). You cannot love without hating what hurts the beloved.
15. Learn to be sweetly firm.
This was what he said to my mother over the phone when she was exasperated with her one disobedient son: Be sweet and firm. I think she succeeded.
With abiding and deep thankfulness for my father’s wisdom,
Pastor John
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
Thursday, July 24, 2008
I Am Selfish Apart From Christ
Philippians 2:1 - 11
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affliction and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
My Personal Vision Statement
Christ and His glory is my sole purpose for living. My soul feels a joy like no other when I realize He has given me the free gift of eternal life. I desire less of me and more of Him everyday. In Him, I am strong. Without Him, I am weak. He gives me the strength, joy, encouragement and purpose to press on toward this vision. My confidence in Christ is unwavering and firm. I am inspiring others toward Christ with my sincere love, patience, encouragement and devotion to Him in all that I do, with all that I am. I extend the same grace that he give me to everyone around me. I am quick to forgive as He has forgiven me. My faith and trust lies in Christ alone so help me God if I should do otherwise. God alone is my judge as He is the judge of everyone else in this world. He has granted me my wife and life partner to cherish and serve. He has granted me children to raise and nurture, love, lead and, eventually, give away. I alone am responsible for leading our family to Christ. I must die daily to myself, so that Christ can be made great and for the benefit of my family. In whatever I pursue, may it be of no worth to me as great as Christ. My life will be about a pursuit of Christ over money, fame and power. In all of my pursuits, the greatest goal will be for Christ to be glorified, magnified and freely enjoyed.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Don't Waste Your Life
Campus Crusade Christmas Conference
By John Piper December 29, 2003
As we meet tonight on this 29th of December, 2003, the body count of those killed in the earthquake in Bam, Iran, stands at about 25,000. That’s a lot of human beings snuffed out in one morning. You feel the personal magnitude of it when you read of a father digging for his family and passing out when he uncovers the hand of his dead teenage daughter, or when you read of an infant found alive in the arms of his dead mother.
What gives this year-end calamity an added apocalyptic feel is not just its magnitude—almost ten times the human loss as our own 9-11 disaster—but the other catastrophes that happened in the last several days in addition to this earthquake: 13 people swept away in a mudslide in California, 6 buried in an avalanche in Utah, 111 killed in a plane crash in Benin, 198 poisoned by a gas leak in China. And those are just the ones which made the news. We would be stunned speechless if we watched the car accidents in which 50,000 people died in America this year.
What Does Jesus Want Us to Learn about Our Lives from These Calamities?
One answer is given in Luke 13:1-5. People asked Jesus about a calamity in which Pilate had killed people while they were worshiping and mingled their blood with their sacrifices. Jesus answers:
Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Jesus could weep over people’s heartbreaking losses (Luke 19:41; John 11L35). And the Bible tells us plainly, “Weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:12). But when the racking emotions are eased a bit, the questions come, and Jesus does not settle the issues with sentimentality. He deals with ultimate reality. He deals with God and sin and judgment and salvation.
He says in effect: "Are you astonished at the death of the Galileans? Are you astonished at the deaths of those who were crushed when the tower of Siloam fell? I will tell you what to be astonished at: be astonished that the tower did not fall on you." If Jesus were here tonight, and we came to him with the death toll from the earthquake in Iran asking him to give an accounting for God, one of the things he would say is: “Be astonished that this hotel has not collapsed with you in it. For unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Which means all of us deserve to die right now and to perish forever.
Our Lives Belong to God
Which leads to this conclusion and sets the stage for my message tonight: Your life is in God’s hands and hangs by a thread of sovereign grace. God owns every soul. He made us and we belong to him by virtue of his being our Creator. He can give and take life as he pleases according to his infinite wisdom, and he never does anyone any wrong. He created human life, and he decides what human life is for.
When Job lost his ten children in an Iran-like calamity (the house collapsed), the Bible says: “he tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. . . . And said . . . ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord’” (Job 1:20-21). The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away! Or, as Job says later, “In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10).
When Hannah was thanking God for her son Samuel after years of barrenness, she said, “The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up” (1 Samuel 2:6). And God himself said in Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”
If any of us lives through this message tonight, it will be a sheer gift of grace. James, the brother of Jesus, put it like this:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)
If the Lord wills, you and I will live through this message. And if he does not, we won’t. Our life is not our own. It belongs to God. I have no right to take your life. And you have no right to take mine. But that is not because our life is our own, but because our lives belong to God and he has the right to take both of us any time he chooses. Your life belongs to God, and he decides what life is for.
Don’t Waste Your Life!
Oh, how jealous Jesus was, therefore, that people not waste their lives. Most of you are students here, and your lives are very much in front of you. At least you feel that they are. They may not be. You may have already lived most of your life. But if God wills, many of you have several decades to live on the earth before you die and give an account of what you did with your life. And how jealous Jesus is that you not waste it.
If he were here, he might make this point with these words: A person’s “life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). Accumulating things is not what life is for. And then he might tell this parable:
The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” 18 And he said, “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” 20 But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:16-21)
Oh, how jealous Jesus is that none of you here tonight be called a fool by God because of the way you used the gift of life! Life is not for the accumulating of things. This night your life will be required of you, and then whose will these possessions be? No sane person on his death bed ever was comforted by his possessions.
Oh, hear the words of Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” (Matthew 16:24-26)
It is possible to waste your life. Few things make me tremble more than the possibility of taking this onetime gift of life and wasting it. Every morning when I walked into the kitchen as a boy I saw hanging on the wall the plaque that now hangs in my living room: “Only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” And now I am almost 58, and the river of life is spilling over the falls of my days with tremendous speed. More and more I smell eternity. And oh, how I want to use my life well. It is so short and so fragile and so final. You get one chance to live your life. And then the judgment. I speak as a father who has children your age, and I am jealous with Jesus that they and you not waste your life.
One of the great tragedies of American culture is the way billions of dollars are invested to persuade people my age to waste the rest of their lives. It goes by the name of retirement, and the entire message is: you’ve worked for it, now enjoy it. And what is the “it”? Twenty years of play and leisure. While the world sinks under the weight of millions of healthy older people fishing, cruising, puttering, playing golf, bridge, bingo, shuffle board, and collecting shells. All of this in preparation for meeting Jesus Christ face to face with nail scars in his hands.
And that is exactly the way you will waste your life in fifty years if you do not make some radical decisions now, and set your face like flint to walk another way. Oh, that you might all come to age 65 with fire in your bones, and say, “Now! Now! With my simple pension and my remaining energy and my new freedom I will pour out my life for Christ and his kingdom, so that when I meet him—which I will do any day now—I will smile at his words, ‘well done, good and faithful servant,’ instead of those awful words, 'Fool! How did all that pointless play put my glory on display?'"
What Is the Essence of the Unwasted Life?
So if you ask me tonight, All right, tell us then, what is the unwasted life? What does it look like? What is the essence of the unwasted life? I just mentioned it: A life that puts the infinite value of Christ on display for the world to see. The passion of the unwasted life is to joyfully display the supreme excellence of Christ by the way we live. Life is given to us so that we can use it to make much of Christ. Possessions are given to us so that by the way we use them, we can show that they are not our treasure, but Christ is our treasure. Money is given to us so that we will use it in a way that shows money is not treasure, but Christ is our treasure.
The great passion of the unwasted life is to magnify Christ. Here is the text that, perhaps more than any other, governs what life is really about: Philippians 1:20-21. Paul says, “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”
Paul’s all-consuming passion was that in his life and in his death Jesus Christ be honored, that is, that Jesus Christ be made to look like the infinite treasure that he is. The reason you have life is to make Jesus Christ look great. There is one central criterion that should govern all the decisions you make in life and in death: Will this help make Jesus Christ look like the treasure he is?
You can see this in the way Paul talks about the two halves of his statement in verse 20. He says that his passion is that Christ be honored (or magnified, or made to look great) whether by life or by death. There is the life half of the verse, and the death half. How does Paul show that Christ is his treasure by life?
The answer is given in Philippians 3:7-8:
Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
In other words, Paul displays the worth of Christ by counting everything else as loss for Christ’s sake. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of Christ.” Which means that the life that displays the worth of Christ—the unwasted life—is the life that uses everything to show that Christ is more valuable that it is. Money is used to show that Christ is more valuable than money. Food is used to show that Christ is more valuable than food is. Houses and lands and cars and computers are used to show that Christ is more valuable than they are. Family and friends and your own life are a place to show that Christ is more valuable than any of them.
The way we display the supreme worth of Jesus in our lives is by treasuring Christ above all things, and then making life choices that show that our joy is not finally in things or even in other people, but in Christ.
And the same is true in the second half of what Paul said in Philippians 1:20, namely, his honoring Christ by the way he dies. “It is my eager expectation and hope that . . . Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.” How is Christ honored—how do we make much of Christ and display his worth—by our death? He gives the answer in the next verse (21): “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Why is death gain? It’s gain because verse 23 says, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Death is gain because death means more of Christ. It means to depart and be with him—with him!—and that is far better.
How do you show that Christ is a treasure in death? By experiencing death as gain. Christ will be most magnified in you, in your dying, when you are most satisfied in him, in your dying. When Christ is more precious to you than all that life can give, then being with him through death will be gain. And it will be plain to all that Christ is your treasure, and nothing on the earth.
Here is the essential lesson for living the unwasted life and dying the unwasted death:
- Life and death are given to us as means of displaying the supreme value of Christ.
- The supreme value of Christ is displayed when you treasure him above all earthly things and all other earthly persons.
- This treasuring of him above all earthly things and persons is most clearly seen in what you are gladly willing to risk, or to sacrifice in order to enjoy more of him.
Here is the radical way Paul put it in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, where Christ refused to remove Paul’s painful thorn in the flesh:
He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” [There’s more of Christ!] Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Magnifying the surpassing power of Christ in his own weakness and pain was Paul’s supreme passion! I will rejoice in whatever makes Christ look magnificently satisfying—including all my pain.
Are You Going to Throw Your Life Away?
So I ask all of you now, are you going to throw your life away with the rest of the world by striving to minimize your suffering and maximize your comforts in this life? Are you going to work for the bread that perishes? Build bigger barns? Lay up treasures on earth? Strive for the praise of man?
Or will you see in Christ crucified and risen, bearing the sins of his people—will you see in this God-Man the all-satisfying treasure of your life? Will you say with Paul, “To live is Christ and to die is gain . . . I count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”?
I believe with all my heart that when God raises up a generation like this—and I pray that you are that generation—the completion of the Great Commission will come to pass. Because it will not come to pass unless a generation is joyfully willing to lay down their lives. The remaining unreached peoples of the world are almost all in dangerous places. If your generation buys into the American mindset of preserving comfort and safety and security and ease, you will be passed over, and God will get his work done another way. And over your generation—as over much of mine—will be written “Fool! Whose will these things be?” And the tragic word: “Wasted!”
But if your passion is to display the worth of Christ, and thus to treasure him above all things, and thus to risk and sacrifice for the display of his supreme value, then I do not doubt that God will use you mightily and that the commitments you make to the hard places of East Asia or the Middle East or North Africa or post-Christian Europe or urban America, will be fulfilled. And in those places the glory of Christ will shine through you and thousands of people will see and put their trust in the Lord.
And over their lives and over your life will be written the words: “This life was not wasted. This life gladly displayed the glory of Christ, both in life and in death.”
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Blogging for Fun & Profit
I just happened upon this really cool blog site that tells me so much about blogging. It's called Blogging For Fun & Profit.
I have a lot to learn, but I highly recommend this site. For example, I just read an article called Blogging 105. I learned already 10 new tools I can use to promote my blog site. Very cool! Check it out!
National Cherry Festival
We had a great turnout for her 6:30pm time slot. We met some great people and ate lots of Cherries!
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