help Google change the world ^_^

Google's 10th Birthday Present: World-Changing Ideas
By Barry Levine
September 25, 2008 2:17PM


Google is celebrating its 10th birthday with Project 10^100, an endeavor that will commit $10 million to backing ideas to improve the world. Google's Project 10^100 will accept ideas big and small, from all walks of life. Analysts see Google's Project 10^100 as both a savvy and altruistic move, and say Project 10^100 will benefit Google's image.

For its birthday, what do you give the company that has everything? In Google's case, the Internet giant is asking for only five presents, but each has the same qualification: Each one must help to change the world.
On Wednesday, Google announced its 10th birthday celebration endeavor, called Project 10^100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th"). In a statement, the company said it was "asking our users to send us exciting ideas for ways to improve people's lives," adding that it has "committed $10 million to turn up to five of the best ideas into reality."
Five Ideas Selected for Funding
The company said that an idea could use technology or not, could be big or small, but it must have an impact. The 100 best ideas will then be identified, and users will be asked to vote on which ideas the company should back with funds.
The deadline for submission of ideas is October 20, and the top 20 ideas will be available for online voting on January 27. After that, a panel of judges will choose as many as five of the ideas for final funding.
On the company's official blog, Andy Berndt, managing director of Google's Creative Lab, noted that we are living in a time when people have access to more information, more tools, and more ways of turning good ideas into action.
"Yet," he wrote, "at the same time so many people (in all walks of life) could use some help, in small ways and big." The ideas could come from anywhere, he said -- a lab, a company, a university, or even "some small connection you've noticed, some old way of doing something that you've seen with new eyes."
'Savvy Business Move'
The company mentioned a few examples of the kinds of innovative ideas it's looking for. The Hippo Water Roller makes it possible for people in underdeveloped countries to collect five times as much water as the traditional method of carrying a five-gallon bucket on the head. Instead of causing damage to the spine, neck and knees of the water carrier, as the traditional head-carrying method can, the Roller allows the larger water bucket to be rolled instead of carried.
First Mile Solutions, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and derived from research at MIT, uses Wi-Fi and digital storage to create "cached Wi-Fi intelligence" that is helping to connect rural communities worldwide, at a very low cost per user.
Google said it would be considering ideas in the categories of Community, Opportunity, Energy, Environment, Health, Education and Shelter, as well as "Everything Else."
Laura DiDio, an analyst with industry research firm Information Technology Intelligence Corps, described Google's birthday present to itself as "a savvy business move," as well as an altruistic one.
She noted that more and more companies are looking to the public to submit ideas via the Internet, and this one in particular emphasizes Google's "sense of inclusiveness, of being green, of trying to make the world a better place," which will benefit its image to the public.

Urgent: Please pray for INDIA

"Please pray for the Church in India. Buddhist extremists burnt 20 churches in Orissa last night. BJP plans to kill 200 pastors in the next 24 hours. All Christians are hiding in the bushes. Please pray and forward to all intercessors you know so we can cry out to God on their behalf. Pastor Steve, Dubai. Please pass." --- text message from my friend Tina

For more information, here are some sites:
Orissa Update and Fact Sheet
Central Govt hits out at Orissa, Karnataka for church attacks
Violence in Orissa spreads, worsens

Let us remember that God is in control; that His purposes are always good and His timing is always perfect. Let us pray in His Spirit and in His name, for His kingdom to come, for His will to be done.

Much thanks for reading and praying!

when tears fall like rain, 2: ten minutes later :)

it's still dark and rainy, but the birds are starting to sing. very eagerly, i might add.

and so shall i. sadness gave me a bigger picture of the world, but the victory is still on the side of good.

take care everybody :)

on a day when tears flow like rain

Right now, i just rejoice in the fact that GOD is strong where i am so weak. i also rejoice in the fact that He is stronger than any of our pastors, friends, or family. Para sa Kanya talaga ako tatakbo kapag finally naaalala ko uli na hindi ko kaya. (So that it is to Him i'll run to when i finally remember that i can't handle it all.)

Restoring force: F = -kx. The farther i drift away, the bigger the force (yet it's the gentlest, most gracious kind of force!) that He uses to draw me back.

"I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love." (Hosea 11:4)

That's all for now. Take care everybody :) Continue to snuggle in God's embrace. :)

God gives us perfect peace. :)

GOD GIVES US *PERFECT* PEACE. :)

WARM-UP QUESTION:
Recall an extremely stressful situation :)


WORD:

1. God Himself is our Peace

When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!" But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die." So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it "The Lord is Peace." To this day it stands...--- Judges 6:22-24


2. Jesus gives us peace in our circumstances...and in our hearts

Jesus Calms the Storm

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to His disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!" --- Mark 4:37-41

* Notes:

• In another translation, Jesus silenced the storm by saying: "Peace! Be still."

• God can give us peace by changing our circumstances...or changing our hearts :)

• Where is *our* faith? are we calm like Jesus when a storm hits...or are we hurt and angry that He doesn't seem to care? Or do we immediately conclude that He never was with us anyway?

3. Inner peace is more important...because Jesus, the "Prince of Peace", also warns:

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' --- Matthew 10:34-36


4. Our peace also lies in the choices we make

Submit to God and be at peace with Him;
in this way prosperity will come to you.
Accept instruction from His mouth
and lay up His words in your heart.
If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored.

If you remove wickedness far from your tent
and assign your nuggets to the dust,
your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines,
then the Almighty will be your gold,
the choicest silver for you.
Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty
and will lift up your face to God.

You will pray to Him, and He will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows.
What you decide on will be done,
and light will shine on your ways.
When men are brought low and you say, 'Lift them up!'
then He will save the downcast.
He will deliver even one who is not innocent,
who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands. --- Job 22:21-30

* Note:
It is God who saves, but if you decide to do right, you will have His peace and His blessing, and the people around you can be saved through you as well. :)


5. Peace by focusing on Who is steadfast

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in You. --- Isaiah 26:3

* Note:
God is eternal, unchanging, and ever faithful. We become more steadfast as we focus on our steadfast God.


6. Why the stress? It's all by HIM anyway...

LORD, You establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished You have done for us.
--- Isaiah 26:12

* Note:
Have you ever felt stressed about not being good enough, as a person or in your actions? Have you ever lost hope in yourself? It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13).


7. This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength..."
--- Isaiah 30:15a

* Note:
Where/In whom do you put your rest and trust? We are saved and strengthened when we trust in God all the more and trust in ourselves all the less.


8. Take heart! Jesus has *already* *overcome* the world, death, and even our own sins.

Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God;
trust also in Me. --- John 14:1

Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. --- John 14:27

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart!
I have overcome the world. --- John 16:33

* Note:
What else is there to be worried or anxious about? God has already overcome His enemies, the curse of death, and even our own sins. We have peace because God has already overcome all.


APPLICATION QUESTION:
In what area of your life can you appropriate the perfect peace of God today?

FAITHFULNESS

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,
for He who promised is faithful.

--- Hebrews 10:23



Remember those earlier days after you had received the light,

when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering.

Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution;

at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

--- Hebrews 10:32-33



So DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR CONFIDENCE;
it will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere
so that when you have done the will of God,
you will receive what He has promised.

For in just a very little while,

"He who is coming will come and will not delay.

But My righteous one will live by faith.

And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed,
but of those who believe and are saved.

--- Hebrews 10:35-39


By faith Enoch was taken from this life,
so that he did not experience death;
he could not be found because God had taken him away.
For before he was taken, he was commended as one who PLEASED GOD.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

--- Hebrews 11:5-6

(teci: i have already been encountered by God and He has repeatedly revealed Himself to me, so i am sure beyond doubt of His existence. So for me, i should not even be asking "Where are You, God? Are You really there?" I should already go on immediately to conversing with Him. Surely He is anywhere and available anytime! =)

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12)

We have come to [b]share in Christ [b,i]*if*[/b,/i] we [b]hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. [/b]

As has just been said:

"Today, [b]if you hear His voice,
do not harden your hearts[/b]
as you did in the rebellion."

...So we see that they were [b]not able to enter, because of their unbelief.[/b] (Hebrews 3:14-15, 19)



Ang galing.
It's really not my ideas, my words, nor even my testimony
It's the WORD from GOD that will draw them to Him ^___^



Atheists:

If you see/hear nothing,
then it's perfectly reasonable not to put your faith in that nothing!
But if you had an encounter already...

(You'll know it when you're at that moment: some say they sense a voice or a thought, some have even seen physical manifestations, others have this sharp realization of insight that it's all real (then-atheist Lee Strobel, for example, after a two(?)-year investigation, concluded that it takes more faith to be atheist).)

When you hear His voice
do not harden your hearts
please do not say "I still don't hear"
when you've never heard anything more clearly =)

and i say this entirely for your sake :)


Christians:

Are you at the brink of disowning your faith?
Why do we believe in the first place?
Remember why you hold your faith to be real/true
Do not let the presence of hardships or the absence of God
deter you from what you have already established as real :)

what am i worried about, anyway? :)

Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God; trust also in Me.
In My Father's house are many rooms;
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with Me
that you also may be where I am.

You know the way to the place where I am going.

--- John 14:1-4 :)



And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor
to be with you forever --- the Spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept Him,
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.

But you know Him
for He lives with you
and will be in you.

--- John 14:16-17



Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives;
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

--- John 14:27

(From the NIV Study Bible: 
"Jesus' peace is real and present; the world can only express a longing or a wish.")

You heard Me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.'
If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I.

I have told you now before it happens,
so that when it does happen you will believe.
I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on Me, but]the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what My Father has commanded Me.

--- John 14:28-31a

So God cleansed me...Now what?

A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. --- Matthew 8:2-3

Do not call anything impure that God has made clean. --- Acts 11:9b

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

...Remain in Me, and I will remain in you.

...Apart from Me you can do nothing.

--- John 15:3, 4a, 5b


If we deliberately keep on sinning
after we have received the knowledge of the truth,
no sacrifice for sins is left,
but only a fearful expectation
of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
--- Hebrews 10:26-27

i am preserved by grace

i am preserved, protected, restored, and blessed...because God is gracious to me. It is not because i'm a good girl --- it's in spite of, and yet also because of, the fact that i was the naughtiest, most rotten of the lot.

God showed me His grace --- His goodness that I far from deserved, so that others can see that His love is unconditional. And that there is hope for all of us :)


From Romans 11:2-6:


God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew.

Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah --- how he appealed to God against Israel: "Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"?

And what was God's answer to him?

"I have reserved for Myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.

And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

i am full of grace

Amazing because nobody, especially myself, would expect it. Amazing, too, because just the night before i wrote this down, i thought i was most wretched, even worse than i have ever been...

But that's exactly what grace is. God delights to show His goodness by loving the most undeserved. God delights to show His wisdom by teaching the most hard-headed and slow-witted. So that all men will be drawn to Him.

Isaiah boldly says,
"I was found by those who did not seek Me;
I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me."
--- Isaiah 65:1; Romans 10:20