Posted 4 days ago

“The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.”—Psalm 138:8.

Most manifestly the confidence which the Psalmist here expressed was a divine confidence. He did not say, “I have grace enough to perfect that which concerneth me—my faith is so steady that it will not stagger—my love is so warm that it will never grow cold—my resolution is so firm that nothing can move it; no, his dependence was on the Lord alone. If we indulge in any confidence which is not grounded on the Rock of ages, our confidence is worse than a dream, it will fall upon us, and cover us with its ruins, to our sorrow and confusion. All that Nature spins time will unravel, to the eternal confusion of all who are clothed therein. The Psalmist was wise, he rested upon nothing short of the Lord’s work. It is the Lord who has begun the good work within us; it is He who has carried it on; and if he does not finish it, it never will be complete. If there be one stitch in the celestial garment of our righteousness which we are to insert ourselves, then we are lost; but this is our confidence, the Lord who began will perfect. He has done it all, must do it all, and will do it all. Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do. Unbelief insinuates—”You will never be able to stand. Look at the evil of your heart, you can never conquer sin; remember the sinful pleasures and temptations of the world that beset you, you will be certainly allured by them and led astray.” Ah! yes, we should indeed perish if left to our own strength. If we had alone to navigate our frail vessels over so rough a sea, we might well give up the voyage in despair; but, thanks be to God, He will perfect that which concerneth us, and bring us to the desired haven. We can never be too confident when we confide in Him alone, and never too much concerned to have such a trust.

spurgeon
Posted 5 days ago

thedailywhat:

Another Movie Trailer of the Day: Ron Burgundy and the Action News Team return to theaters in 2013 after a nine-year hiatus. Here’s your first (official) look.

[hypervocal]

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 

steve carell as brick is one of my favorite characters of all time.

Posted 6 days ago

yep.

from my sister’s tumblr. 

Posted 1 week ago
thedailywhat:

Letter Of Note of the Day: Wedding season once again is upon us, and a June 1971 letter from future U.S. President Ronald Reagan to his soon-to-be-wed son, Michael, contains advice for the groom that stands the test of time.
An excerpt:

If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.
Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.

Read the letter in full here.
[lettersofnote]

thedailywhat:

Letter Of Note of the Day: Wedding season once again is upon us, and a June 1971 letter from future U.S. President Ronald Reagan to his soon-to-be-wed son, Michael, contains advice for the groom that stands the test of time.

An excerpt:

If you truly love a girl, you shouldn’t ever want her to feel, when she sees you greet a secretary or a girl you both know, that humiliation of wondering if she was someone who caused you to be late coming home, nor should you want any other woman to be able to meet your wife and know she was smiling behind her eyes as she looked at her, the woman you love, remembering this was the woman you rejected even momentarily for her favors.

Mike, you know better than many what an unhappy home is and what it can do to others. Now you have a chance to make it come out the way it should. There is no greater happiness for a man than approaching a door at the end of a day knowing someone on the other side of that door is waiting for the sound of his footsteps.

Read the letter in full here.

[lettersofnote]

Posted 1 week ago
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

speak to me, Lord.

Posted 2 weeks ago

fight vs. flight.

this kid chooses the right option. HAHA

“come back..”

Posted 2 weeks ago
beccasung:

= soakin in nepal

in 2005, as a freshman, i went to nepal for my first ever mission trip with KCCC.
one night it was SOOO HOT (we never had a/c during that trip except for one night) and so in order for us to keep cool, out of desperation, i took an umbrella and started throwing it up and down (like the .gif). it created a fanning effect and&#8230;it actually worked! :D

beccasung:

= soakin in nepal

in 2005, as a freshman, i went to nepal for my first ever mission trip with KCCC.

one night it was SOOO HOT (we never had a/c during that trip except for one night) and so in order for us to keep cool, out of desperation, i took an umbrella and started throwing it up and down (like the .gif). it created a fanning effect and…it actually worked! :D

(Source: second-impact)

Posted 2 weeks ago

move along!

Posted 2 weeks ago
Posted 3 weeks ago

Princeton Review Accused of Fraud in Tutoring Services

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/nyregion/princeton-review-accused-of-fraud-in-tutoring-program.html?_r=1&hp

This actually hits close to home for me cause my first job straight out of college in 2008, was working for a tutoring provider like Princeton Review (not gonna say the name of the company). I was one of the “marking reps” that represented my company and tried to attract prospective parents to signing their child up for our tutoring services.

Basically, it worked like this: The US government was providing free tutoring services for children coming from underprivileged circumstances. It was a completely free service for them, and the government would pay the provider based on the number of students that were signed up for that provider. The more students you have enrolled in your company’s services, the more money you would receive from the government.

These “provider fairs” (as they were called) were like meat markets. You would essentially have a bunch of tutoring providers (Princeton Review, Kaplan, Champions, etc.. theres a ton of them) come and set up little tables in the school’s cafeteria or auditorium, and then interested parents would come in and browse around.

The parents were given forms to fill out. These forms were like GOLDEN TICKETS. They would write their child’s information, the tutoring provider (ie princeton review), and BAM - that provider would receive money from the US government.

The thing was, the providers were not supposed to have these forms in the first place. Yet, at many provider fairs, i would see some of them having stacks of these papers. And they would get these poor parents (some not able to speak a lick of english) to sign up their child for the service. Often times, it felt like the parents were just told to sign up their child without even checking out other providers.

What the article is basically pointing to is that Princeton Review’s former supervisor at the time, was actually forging names onto those “GOLDEN” forms so that the government would give them money. And she would receive a nice commission based on her “sales.”

It was cut throat most of the time and some providers were super catty and aggresive. Our marketing reps were told to be aggressive as well, but dang…there was a line that wasn’t crossed.

Some providers played up their “race” card and tried to woo people of the same ethnicity. Some providers tried to give you free pens or whatnot. Some (including ours) tried to tout our “superior” services compared with the “others.” (although every provider hired sub-par tutors which is a whole other story..)

I remember certain providers (not so much Princeton Review, ironically) that had reps that were literally shoveling parents to sign on the dotted line.

I just KNEW that something shady like this was happening - but I didn’t think Princeton Review was one to do it.

But (thankfully), I was laid off after sub-par results. Actually, I think most of the NYC team for my company was laid-off.

Thank God I did though. I got laid off the same exact week where I had to make a decision whether or not to join staff with KCCC. I take that as an act of God’s grace on my life.

TLDR: I worked for an SES tutoring provider in the past, and I’m TOTALLY not surprised that another SES provider got caught with something like this. Although, I would imagine that there are a lot more that got away with it.