From my Scripture reading yesterday:

Oh, that you would hold your tongue, that it might be imputed to you for wisdom! —Job 13:5

Scripture always speaks to me. Sometimes it gets personal.

Well, it's Friday afternoon, and I haven't posted anything since Sunday. I really don't have anything of substance today, either, but came across a video that reminded me of this satirical piece I posted a while back. In case you didn't get this picture and caption (don't worry about it--I'm used to it), this video might clear it up a little. Anyway, I thought it was funny.

Update: new, improved explanation.

I'm no computer tech nerd. My web skills are really quite basic, gained largely through trial & error and by clicking "view page source" on web pages with interesting features. But I'm a fiddler and a tinkerer, so I can seldom just leave a newly-discovered function alone without customizing it. That's not always a good thing. I've messed up a lot of perfectly good code by trying just one more modification. Sometimes though, I have a genuine "Eureka!" moment when I figure out something really good. Today, I want to share one of those "Eureka!" moments. The techies out there will be mostly unimpressed, but perhaps some of you will find this useful.

I don't like sending readers to sites with questionable content. For that reason, I prefer to embed YouTube videos rather than link to YouTube. However, embedded videos are one of the things that can cause your page to load slowly. Also, they clutter up the appearance of the page. I therefore wanted to make the video open alone in a popup window.

First, I scavenged the code from a page containing a popup image. In this case, it was from my own site. (Movable Type allows you to choose "popup" or "embedded" when uploading a file, and writes the code for you, so yes, I had done it before without knowing how.) Then I trimmed out the attributes I didn't need, such as scrollbars and the like. I then simply replaced the file URL with the YouTube video URL. This will not be the URL found in the address bar or to the right of the video on the YouTube page. It will be the URL found in the "embed" code directly below that, highlighted in red in this image. YouTube will not let you copy just the URL out of the "embed" code, so you will have to copy & paste the entire "embed" code and then copy the URL into your popup code. Just right-click on the "embed" code and click "copy." Then paste it into your blog post or any document. It will look like this:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yBsGFAXw6d4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yBsGFAXw6d4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

The URL is the part in red type, and is the only part you will keep. Delete the rest. The code you need, with the URL copied from the code above, looks like this:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/yBsGFAXw6d4" onclick="window.open('http://www.youtube.com/v/yBsGFAXw6d4','popup', 'width=425, height=350'); return false">Where I learned My Computer Skills</a>

. . . and here's how it works:

Where I learned My Computer Skills

Now, here's another trick to give you further control over your content, this one thanks to the Desiring God blog. YouTube videos are automatically followed by a menu of related videos that you may or may not want appearing on your site. You can eliminate them by simply adding &rel=0 to the URL, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/yBsGFAXw6d4&rel=0

Finally, you can adjust the size of the video display by changing the width & height attributes, or go to full screen by simply omitting them. However, most YouTube videos are not of high enough resolution to display at full screen.

As I said, techies will be generally unimpressed with this, but my little brain thinks this is very cool. I hope someone finds it useful.

Thus Satan leads poor creatures down into the depths of sin by winding stairs, that let them not see the bottom whither they are going. He first presents an object that occasions some thoughts; these set of fire the affections, and they fume up into the brain, and cloud the understanding, which being thus disabled, Satan now dares a little more declare himself, and boldly solicit the creature to that it would even now have defied. Many who at this day lie in open profaneness, never thought that should have rolled so far from their profession; but Satan beguiled them, poor souls, with their modest beginnings. O Christians, give not place to Satan, no, not an inch, in his first motions. He that is a beggar and a modest one without doors, will command the house if let in. Yield at first, and thou givest away thy strength to resist him in the rest; when the hem is worn the whole garment will ravel out, if it be not mended by timely repentance.

—William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002), 1:77.

I've been feeling a little under par lately (I know, under par is actually good. I didn't coin the expression.), so I haven't been very productive. I haven't been wasting my time entirely, though. One of the things I've been doing while doing nothing is listening to The History and Theology of Calvinism by Dr. Curt Daniel, available free of charge as mp3 or pdf files. The book appears to be out of print.

The theological system called "Calvinism" is widely misunderstood. I would venture to say that the vast majority of those who oppose it really know little about it. I would even say that there are many who call themselves Calvinists who have simply inherited it or accepted it because someone they respect believes it. Don't be one of those people!

There are many common misconceptions about Calvinism, and two in particular that have annoyed me. First, I don't know how often I've heard or read words like these: Calvinism began when John Calvin wrote his "Five Points of Calvinism," which he arranged in the acrostic "TULIP." I've even read that in books by Calvinists! That, of course is incorrect. For those who don't know, the "Five Points" were written after Calvin's death by the Synod of Dordt. Not only were they not arranged to spell "TULIP," they were not systematized in that order. Second, I'd love to have a nickel for every time I've been told that "John Calvin burned Servetus at the stake." These are only a couple of historical issues Dr. Daniel covers.

The History and Theology of Calvinism is an excellent presentation of both the history and the theology of this system, and I highly recommend it. Whatever you believe, don't believe it ignorantly!