New project: Wyn Magazine

For the last few months I've been working alongside a team of writers from Alaska to Australia lead by Becky Castle Miller and  Amy Jane Helmericks to put together Wyn Magazine (wynmag.com), an online magazine and blog focusing on providing resources and hope for mental and emotional healing. It is a bit intimidating to write about such things but I think it is important and worthwhile because so many people struggle in silence due to stigma and lack of knowledge surrounding mental and emotional health issues. I'd really appreciate it if you would visit the site and pass it on to anyone you think it might help.

Resource roundup: Free audiobooks

If you want to read but struggle to find the time, audiobooks are a great option because you can "read" while commuting, exercising or doing chores. This month there is a few worthwhile looking free audiobooks out that would be a great way to get started. I'm unsure as to when the free offers for all of these expire so if you want them, get them as soon as possible.

	Title: Wrecked Author: Jeff Goins Offer expires: possibly within a week Source: noisetrade.com
	Title: More or Less Author: Jeff Shinabarger Offer expires: Unknown Source: noisetrade.com
	Title: The Explicit Gospel Author: Matt Chandler with Jared C. Wilson Offer expires: 30 June 2013 Source: christianaudio.com
	Title: The Awakening of Hope Author: Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove Offer expires: June 30 Source: gobible.com
	Title: The Myth of the Garage Author: Chip and Dan Heath Offer expires: Unknown Source: heathbrothers.com
	Title: Through Painted Deserts Author: Donald Miller Offer expires: Unknown Source: noisetrade.com

Lessons on shame from Brene Brown

Today I wastched Brene Brown's recent TED talk on shame (a sequel to her previous hit talk on vulnerability.) Brene is always interesting to listen to/read, but listening to this talk made me ponder how some of her ideas can help us create more healthy Christian communities. I've posted some thoughts below the embedded video. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments if you watch the video or have read her book on the topic.

• "Shame is a focus on self, guilt is a focus on behavior. Shame is "I am bad." Guilt is "I did something bad.""
  We often seem to use the ideas of shame and guilt interchangeably. In the talk Brene points out that they are different- shame is about who we are at the core being bad and is related to all sorts of destructive patterns. Guilt on the other hand is about what we did being bad and can be a positive motivator for change.  Given the importance of repentance and change towards right behaviour in Christian discipleship, I think this is a crucial point to keep in mind when we or others mess up. We don't want to fall into destructive shaming, but nether do we want to insulate people from guilt which is uncomfortable but often serves a productive purpose.
• "Shame, for women, is this web of unobtainable, conflicting, competing expectations about who we're supposed to be. And it's a straight-jacket. For men, shame is not a bunch of competing, conflicting expectations. Shame is one, do not be perceived as what? Weak" I think there is a few things we can take away from it. One is that other people (especially of the opposite gender) may experience shame for different reasons than we do. Because of this, caring for them may be learning and being mindful about their triggers. I think the other take-away from this is to be careful that we aren't overloading people with cultural (rather than biblical) expectations of everything they should do and be as a Christian man or a Christian woman that drive them into destructive shame when the inevitable failure to live up to it happens.
• If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence and judgement. If you put the same amount of shame in a Petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can't survive. The two most powerful words when we're in struggle: me too."
  I've seen this be true so many times. Admitting your own struggles to some else who is or might be struggling sometimes doesn't seem very significant or much like a ministry, but it can make such a huge difference. Jon Acuff calls it "the gift of going second", meaning that when we take the hard step of being brave enough to share our shame and struggles first, we make it easier for those who go second.  Imagine how much healthier our communities would be if people knew it was safe to bring their sins, shame and struggle out into the light to deal with and get help for because they were so used to seeing others do the same?

Resource roundup: Online learning.

Since finishing up university, I've kinda missed it. I don't miss spending Friday nights trying to get my work to conform to the finer details of the required citation style or sitting long exams in big exam halls. I do miss the chances university provides to learn new things and to discuss big ideas. To make up for what I'm missing, I've been exploring options for online learning that are free or cheap.

I have been very impressed thus far by the courses from Coursera. Coursera courses are free, range from 4-12 weeks and come from Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and University of Pennsylvania. In addition to lectures, many of the courses include readings, online discussion groups, quizzes and exams. I am close to finishing the Introduction to Sociology course. The lecture quality was very good, the readings mostly interesting and there were lots of helpful discussions happening online. Even though I've done a degree in Sociology, I still learned a lot. I think the learning experience was comparable to some courses I took in a traditional university setting. I'm looking forward to taking A History of the World since 1300, Neuroethics and Listening to World Music. I'm also planning to take Statistics One to improve my knowledge in the area. The medicine courses are not really in my area of interest but a friend that has done some of them was impressed.

I'm hunting for good online theological courses that are free or not too expensive. Ligonier Connect looks rather promising as they have a pretty extensive course catalog and the price is reasonable. Anyone have suggestions for theology courses?

Elsewhere in my internet world.....

So Joanna Muses doesn't get overloaded with all my (hopefully) interesting internet finds, I've been posting in two new places.

A new project I'm working on is The Free Music Feature (thefreemusicfeature.com). As you can probably guess from the title, it features legal, free music from various sites. I'm aiming to feature interesting music from a variety of genres. There is so much free music being made available online so I hope the site helps people find something they love from among it all.

The other place I've been posting is Pinterest (pinterest.com/joannamuses/). I've been busy pinning a variety of entertaining, thought provoking or beautiful images and graphics.

Most popular posts of 2011

I realise best of 2011 are so last week but since I was on a mission trip until Thursday and have been recovering since then, I'll just have to be a bit late on this one. The following lists are based on number of page views.

Musings posts
1.Moving on from the gospel
2.When you don't know what to pray
3.God isn't a vending machine
4.How do you know God loves you?
5. Taking comfort in God's knowledge of our flaws

Book reviews
1.Theresa Flores- The slave across the street
2.David Platt- Radical
3.C. J. Mahaney et al.- Worldliness
4.Thom and Jess Rainer- The millennials
5.John Piper- Bloodlines

Thanks for your support over the past year! I look forward to bringing you more posts in 2012.

Resource roundup: Christmas music

If you've been shopping any time lately you've quite likely heard some terrible recordings of Christmas music. It is amazing how badly it is possible to ruin perfectly good songs. Thankfully there is good Christmas music out there. Even better, you don't have to spend much (or in some cases anything) to get it.

My favoute Christmas album is Love Shall Be Our Token by High Street Hymns. You can download the whole album for whatever you want to pay (minimum US$1) Instrumental tracks are also available. The sheet music is free at their website.

Quite a few great artists have also been putting out Christmas music on noisetrade. All the music on noisetrade is free, but you can make a donation to the artist if you want to. Some I've enjoyed are

Sojourn
Aaron Ivey
Rebekah Antoine
Nathan Tasker
Culby X

Sleeping at last

If you have any other suggestions for good free or cheap Christmas music, please post them in the comments.

Resource roundup 16 July 2011

• Redemption Hill Music produces some great folk style versions of hymns. I don't normally listen to folk but I really like these. They've got a few free downloads at their website.
• If pop and rock are more your style, check out Manifest. They've got 11 tracks available for free download. I especially like Deliver Me. The remix sounds a little like something Evanescence would do.
• Vern Poythress has made his new book Redeeming Sociology (published by Crossway) available for free download in .pdf format. Haven't read it yet but it sounds really interesting.
• This month's free audio book at christianaudio is The Millennials by Thom S. Rainer & Jess Rainer

Resource roundup 29 June 2011

• Check out this week's podcast from PRI's the World In Words for some interesting discussion on the on-going impact of the King James bible translation and some of the issues those translating the bible today deal with.
• If you are looking for some new music, check out Ohio Avenue's album The Sound. You candownload it for free at Noise Trade. I've been listening to it a lot and have really enjoyed it.
• You can download heaps of talks from this year's Gospel Coalition conference for free at iTunes. I haven't had a chance to listen to many of the talks yet but there looks to be some very interesting ones.
  

Resource roundup 9 March 2011

Free Elevation Worship remixes
Elevation Worship have put out some remixes of some of their latest songs for free. I really enjoyed them. The remixes don't sound like typical worship music.

Free R.S Sproul audiobook
This month's free audiobook at christianaudio is The Holiness of God by R.C Sproul

9Marks eJournal
The current issue of the 9Marks eJournal looks at issues surrounding para-church ministries. As someone involved in an interdenominational campus ministry, I found it to be interesting and thought provoking reading.

Resource roundup 18 February 2011

Two free audiobooks this time.

Adopted for life by Russell Moore
Even if adopting a child is not something you are likely to pursue, this is a great book that can teach you a lot about God. It is free only until the end of this month.

Churched by Matthew Paul Turner.
I haven't listened to/read this one yet but it sounds quite interesting. Might be worth a look if you enjoy memoirs.

Joanna's Singapore Adventures makes a (brief) return

Those of you who have been visiting her for a while might remember a blog I ran in 2009 called Joanna's Singapore Adventures. It featured stories and photos from my time living in Singapore and traveling around Asia. Since I moved home in January 2010 I haven't been posting there for obvious reasons. I am pleased to announce that I since I will be back in Singapore for a few weeks soon that Joanna's Singapore Adventures is coming back! I will post a few of the best photographs at Joanna Muses, but if you would like to see more or to read about my adventures, please subscribe at Joanna's Singapore Adventures (joannainsingapore.com)

Resource roundup 10-1-11

Free Josh McDowell ebooks
You can download some free ebooks from Josh McDowell at his website They seem to be of older, out of print books. Topics include apologetics, relationships and children's fiction. 

Free ebooks of Christian classics
At Puritan Library you can download free ebooks of classic Christian works by authors such as Jonathon Edwards, John Owen, Richard Baxter and many more. Many of the downloads are available in kindle and epub formats.

Heaps of free Mark Driscoll sermons
At the Mars Hill Church website you can download heaps of sermons by Mark Driscoll. I'm currently listening to the 2 Timothy series

Resource roundup 22 December 2010

Looking for some music for your Christmas celebrations? Heaps of artists are making their Christmas albums available for free or whatever you'd like to donate on noisetrade.com

Wanting to get an overview of the whole bible? A series of lectures by D.A Carson called "the God who is there" has recently been made available for download at The Gospel Coalition website. In these lectures, Carson gives an overview of the biblical story. I haven't had a chance to listen to them yet but everything else I have heard from Carson has been excellent.

If you would like to check out some of D.A Carson's books, Andy Naselli provides a list of Carson's books that are available for free and legal download.

This video was designed as an advertisement for a conference but I was stuck by its simple but profound presentation of the difference that Christ makes.

Resource roundup 29 November 2010

A musically themed resource roundup for you today


Free music from The Kingdom
The Kingdom is a great Christian rock band from Australia. You can download their latest EP for free on their website. I've been playing their song How It Was a lot.


Free music from Switchfoot
Switchfoot is giving away a fantastic remix of their song Yet. You can download it at their website.

Free music from Jenny and Tyler
I think I might have featured Jenny and Tyler before but they are worth featuring again because their free EP is really good.They play acoustic pop

New project: Dear First Year (dearfirstyear.com)

I have been assigned the role of peer mentor to a group of new students starting at my university next year. The role involves helping them get familiar with the university environment, requirements and support services. It is hoped that with the support of senior students, the struggles first years deal with will not end up becoming so bad they drop out of university.

I started to create a list of advice to give them but realised the list would be too big for a handout and would be more than they would remember if I told them. I also wondered if it might be useful for first years in other mentoring groups or at other universities and colleges.

With this in mind, I decided to start a new blog called Dear First Year (dearfirstyear.com). I'll be posting tips for how to study well, enjoy university and not create extra stress for yourself. I figure they may be more willing to listen to a fellow student than an adult who is long past their university days.  At the moment I am still going through the obvious (but important) hints but there will be more interesting ones to come.

If you are/have been a student, feel free to leave a comment here or over at Dear First Year with ideas for things you think first years should know. If you know any students who you think may benefit, please do pass it onto them.

Resource roundup 2 November 2010

Sorry for the relative silence around here lately. In the last month I've had an exam, 3 essays to write, a postgraduate study application to work on, family celebrations and family tragedies amongst other happenings. Thankfully things are calming down a bit so I'll hopefully be posting a lot more. I also have a new blog I'm starting aimed at college/university students. More about that soon.

Here's some worthwhile resources I've found online lately.

Free bibles for Kindle
If you are a Kindle user you may be interested to know that the ESV and HCSB bible translations are free at the moment. Make sure you check that they are still free before you get them because Kindle pricing can change without notice.

Free and discounted John Piper audiobooks.
This month christianaudio has the audiobook of Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper available for free. Other audiobooks by John Piper are on sale for US$5. I plan to get his new book Think

Free ebooks from Gospel For Asia.
At Gospel for Asia's website you can download some great ebooks about missions and Christian living

Free ebook from Sarah Cunningham

A few weeks ago I interviewed author Sarah Cunningham. If you are interested in reading her book Picking Dandelions, you can download it free at the Amazon Kindle store this week. If you don't have a kindle, you can get free apps to read kindle books on a variety of phones, iPod touches or computers. Make sure the book is still free before you get it as prices can change.

Free download of Picking Dandelions at Amazon.

iPhone/iPod touch/iPad apps for Christian learning

There are a lot of really dumb apps in the Apple app store but if you do a bit of hunting around there are also some great ones to be found. Here's a few I've found particularly helpful for bible study/theological learning. I tried these out on an iPod touch but they should work just as well on an iPhone. Some of these apps also have an iPad edition available.

ESV bible (free)
While this one has less features than some other bible apps, it is well designed and easy to use. It features the popular English Standard Version of the bible. It also does not require internet access for any of the features which is great if you are an iPod touch user and not always within range of a WiFi hotspot

YouVersion (free)
YouVersion seems to be one of the most popular bible apps. It includes many English translations and some foreign language translations. Some of the available translations can be downloaded for offline use, some you need an internet connection. Other features include reading plans, bible commentary from other users and being able to search for nearby church services and events.

Legonier Ministries (free)
The Legonier ministries app includes daily devotions and messages from R.C Sproul. It also includes an extensive library of sermons and articles on a wide variety of topics by teachers such as Jerry Bridges, D.A Carson, Kevin DeYoung, Joshua Harris, John MacArthur, Albert Mohler, John Piper and many more.

Mars Hill (free)
The Mars Hill app features an extensive library of sermons from popular preacher Mark Driscoll. Sermons are available in audio and video formats. The app also includes the Mars Hill Church blog and a lot of original worship music from the church.

GoodReader (US$1, AU$1.19. free but limited version also available)
Not a Christian app, but it definitely has uses for Christian content. There are heaps of great free Christian ebooks online in .pdf format from sites like desiringgod.org or gfa.org. GoodReader makes it really easy to read these or other publications in pdf or Microsoft office formats on your iPod touch or iPhone. There is heaps of options for transferring books to your gadget including email, FTP, downloading straight from the web, google docs and WiFi (some of these options do cost an extra dollar to unlock). When reading the books you can read them with the original document's formatting or reformatted for easy reading. The app will automatically open the document to where you were last reading.



Anything worthwhile I've missed?

Free "Stuff Christians Like" audiobook

If you've been reading Christian blogs for a while, you will have very likely come across Jon Acuff's blog Stuff Christians Like. He's great at poking fun at the silly things that go on in the Christian community without being mean or sacrilegious. He's recently released a book which has some of the best stuff from the blog as well as some new material. You can download the audiobook of it for free at christianaudio.com/free. It's available free for this month only. I've listened to it already and really enjoyed it.