Mac Mini

I have used Windows PCs for many many years now. I have never owned a Macintosh, an Apple, or a Mac (I did have a TI-99/4A and a Timex Sinclair though). Today I broke the mold. My bright, shinny, tiny Mac Mini came in the mail today from Amazon.

I am impressed.

The packaging was amazing, the design is stunning, and I know we have all heard this a thousand times...it just worked! I turned the thing on, it found my Wi-Fi network and made all the configurations. All it asked me for is my WEP key and what language keyboard I have. My Dell 3100CN printer installed like a champ. It happily used my Logitech wireless keyboard and my off brand LCD monitor. The only issue that I had was that it did not come with Windows sharing turned on. I ticked it on and it *almost* hooked itself into my Windows workgroup. The Mac hiccuped a bit because my workgroup is not named the standard "workgroup." I did a quick Google search and found a page that showed how to change the workgroup, and now my PC sees all the files on my Mac and vice versa. If I had not been such a twit when I named my home workgroup, it would have worked instantly.

I am not converting yet, but I do think that the Mac folks are making headway. The beauty of this thing is that it is cheap (by Mac standards, you can still get a much better equipped Dell with monitor, keyboard, and mouse, for less money), very tiny, uses all of your existing PC components, and plays nice with a Microsoft network. This thing makes it easy and painless for a PC -centric individual to venture in to Macville. Way to go Steve Jobs.

Judge "Me"

I think most of us have heard that judging others is a sin. Of course, it is not that big of a sin, right? It is probably on the order of sneaking a quick glance at the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue on the magazine rack, right? Well, I hate to say it, but from what I read this morning it seems like it is a big deal to God.

Check out Romans 2:1-5:

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, "We know that God's judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth." Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
(Romans 2:1-5 NRSV)

Whoa! This says that when I judge someone I "despise the riches of his [God's] kindness" and that I am "storing up wrath" for myself. That sounds pretty serious. Considering this, maybe I should give my brothers and sisters some slack and leave the judging up to God who is able to judge in "accordance with truth."

This post also appears on Digitial Devotion.

Mrs. Benny Hinn

This video is so bad I hate to even post it. However, it may be the single funniest "blooper" that I have ever seen. What bothers me so much about it is that it is not quite a blooper...she is actually serious about it!

Perfection in God's Economy

The idea of "God's economy" has figured into my thoughts a lot lately. What I mean by this idea of God's economy is that God has completely different valuations of things than we do. In Matthew 5 God lauds the meek while the world admires the strong. God blesses the peacemakers and the persecuted, while the world claps for the victor.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
(Matthew 5:3-12 NIV)

Lately I have tried to read the scriptures through this lens of God's economy. Today I went back over the end of chapter 1 in Romans:

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
(Romans 1:29-31 NIV)

Did you see it? God put gossiping and disobeying your parents in the same list as murderers! If we were putting together a list of things that resulted from a depraved mind would we include these two things? I doubt it...but remember this is God's economy....God's valuation system, and he does things differently that we do.

Even at 2 years old, my son disobeys us. Does this mean that he is depraved? I have gossiped in the past week or so? Am I depraved? YES! I am depraved. My son is depraved. Sin is in our human natures. If left to my own devices apart from God I exhibit many of the traits that are listed in these verses. Sadly enough, my son is depraved too, and has been since birth. OK...so what can we do about this?

This is where grace comes in. This 5-letter word is possibly the sweetest in the English language. Grace allows us to be forgiven and for a depraved, disobedient, lying, gossip to be welcomed into the true family of God. By the ultimate show of God's grace, the sacrifice of His son, he has made us perfect and we are no longer held in bondage by our depraved heart.

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts

I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
(Hebrews 10:11-22)

God forgives us for doing all of the evil things that we do with the simple admonition that we are to continually strive for perfection in our day to day life just as the sacrifice of Jesus' life has made us perfect in God's eyes.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
(Matthew 5:48)

I don't know about you, but this changes things for me. To know that I, at my core, am depraved, but that God has made me "perfect" is almost too much to comprehend. To be welcomed into his family because of God's good grace, this is incomprehensible in the human economy, but it makes perfect sense in God's economy.

This post also appears on Digitial Devotion.

What About Those Who Have Never Heard the Gospel?

What is the fate of the millions of people that have never been formally exposed to the Gospel? What of the minions who it seems never got to make the choice to allow Jesus Christ to become Lord and Savior in their lives?

This is a question that I have struggled with for years. My wife and I have discussed it together on several occasions. My gut wants to carve out a separate path for them that would somehow give them a second chance. I don't want the teenager in Iran to be held accountable for his unbelief in the same way that the preacher's son is. I will say up front that my compassion begins to override my beliefs here and I want to start making exceptions for people that haven't had all the chances that I have had. It just doesn't seem fair that the Iranian kid is judged by the same standards that I am.

This came up again in my devotional time this morning. I read Romans 1:18-21:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
(Romans 1:18-21)

This verse teaches that God has been clearly revealed through Creation. As I recall, C.S. Lewis backs up the position that nature declares the existence of God in Mere Christianity. One thing to keep in mind is that we as human beings are are part of his creation as well. It is not just trees and butterflys and such.

This verse goes on the tell that the "wrath" of God is poured out on those that choose not to believe after they have seen God revealed through His creation. Of course, one would assume that the wrath of God involves eternal torment in Hell, but that is not specifically enunciated in the passage. What later passages (Romans 1:21-32) do vividly describe is the downward spiral into sin that happens once someone rejects God as revealed in His creation. What Paul described in these later verses is not a pretty picture, although it does look a whole lot network television today. Chew on that for a while.

So here is the wrap up of what I took away from this passage:

1. The power and nature of God has always been revealed though his creation
2. Those who see His creation (everyone) and reject God receive His wrath
3. Those who reject God will find themselves on a degrading spiral of sinful living

The question of where these "rejectors" go for eternity is still not concretely answered, all this passage teaches is that they will receive God's wrath. While it is easy, and may be correct, to assume that they end up in Hell, that should not change anything about how we treat our responsibility to tell them about Christ. Regardless of their eternal fate, the experience of God's wrath and the bondage into the degrading temporal life of sin as described in Romans 1:21-32 is something that no one wants to experience. While we as Christians do not have the power to "win souls" or to release these individuals from this bondage, we can do everything in our power to show people another better way of living in Christ. Of course this might mean preaching the Word, but it may also mean living a Christ-like life day to day. For me, this might mean keeping my attitude, temper, and grace in check as the world I have built crumbles around me, or it may mean putting others before myself and acting with humility when I am on top of my game. The bottom line is I should strive to live my life so that everything I do and every action I take points the rejectors toward the "eternal power and divine nature" or God.

As I researched this issue, I had a look at the following sites:

• Rebbecca provides an excellent commentary on Romans 1:18-20
• Another well written resource from GotQuestions.org
• An answer from the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministries

This post also appears on Digitial Devotion.

What Voice to Listen to?

I just got back from our morning men's Bible study. We are on chapter 10 of John Eldredge's Wild at Heart that discusses man's relationship to women. A peculiar thing happened, instead of talking about what the text or the Bible said about the subject, everyone just started to talk about their own opinions and experiences as to what makes a marriage work.

There is one individual in our Bible study that I really respect. He is an older gentleman, with a lot of experience and a great deal of spiritual wisdom. Over the past few weeks I have learned some of the story of his life come to know him well. As he spoke I was absolutely focused on his words. When others spoke that might have points that are just as valid as my friend I had trouble concentrating. As I listened to them I actually wished that my friend would say something else. I also found myself digging through my mind for the scripture verses that would help illuminate the issue instead of listening to what the other members of the group had to say.

What I seemed to be dealing with during Bible study this morning is which voice I should listen too. I made the subconscious choice to pay more attention to my friend whose wisdom I was certain of than the others in the room. I also chose to listen to the voice of scripture over people that I didn't know well enough to be certain of their wisdom.

I thought about what scripture said about this and I know that we are to test the validity of the "voices" we hear before we listen to them. 1 John 4:1-6 says:

Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is the way to find out if they have the Spirit of God: If a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ became a human being, that person has the Spirit of God. If a prophet does not acknowledge Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist. You have heard that he is going to come into the world, and he is already here. But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won your fight with these false prophets, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. These people belong to this world, so they speak from the world's viewpoint, and the world listens to them. But we belong to God; that is why those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
(1 John 4:1-6 NLT)

The verses I looked at in Matthew a couple days back also have something to say:

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'
(Matthew 7:15-23 NRSV)

These verses give us some idea of how to test which voices we should listen too. the 1 John passage says that the voices should always acknowledge God. This pretty much rules out everything on network TV and most of the advertising we see! The Matthew passage says that we should judge the quality of the voice by the fruit that the person produces in their life.

We have the idea of the reliability of the source in almost every other aspect of our life. For example, if the kid at the McDonald's drive through started giving you investment advice, you probably would not (or at least should not) give him must attention. However, if Warren Buffett started to give you the same advice I imagine that you would be furiously making notes and hanging on every work. Why is it that we will seem to listen to all sorts of crazy voices when it comes to spiritual things? We will listen to Tom Cruise tell us about how to find spiritual peace. Tom can act, but he has not more skill or ability in spiritual matters than the guy that works on your car. Why will we listen to him?

I think that the key to this is to come up with good standard for judging the quality of the voice. It has nothing to do with fame or notoriety. The volume or eloquence of the voice makes no difference. What is important is that the voice acknowledges the supremacy of the Lord and his word and that their life bears good fruit. This is the voice we should listen to and we shouldn't feel guilty about tuning out all the rest.

This article is also posted to Digitial Devotion.

My Responsibility to My Children

Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
(Deuteronomy 6:4-9) NRSV

Today I went through a sermon by Dr. Bill Bennett called Don't Be a Dud - Be a Dad in my devotional time. One of the scriptures was Deuteronomy 6:4-9. I have read the Shema (verse 4) many many times. It is absolutely central to the Christian (and Jewish) faith. However, something grabbed me today about verse 7 where God commands me to "recite them to [my] children and talk about them when [we] are at home and when [we] are away, when [we] lie down and when [we] rise." What a responsibility! God has just placed the task of making sure that my sons know the scriptures on my plate.

When my first son was still in the womb we prayed nightly that he would love God, love to pray, and love to read the Bible. While this is certainly a very good idea, this is not enough. We are responsible for taking the active and practical steps to communicate the scriptures to our children. It is our responsibility as parents (and not God's) to transfer knowledge of the scriptures into our children.

We are pretty new to this parenting game (we have a 2 year old boy and another in the oven), but we have already started reading the Bible to our son. We read the Bible every night to Nathan (I recommend "The Children's Illustrated Bible" by DK Publishing), and have since he was born. I know that he doesn't understand much of it now, but I want to instill the habit...and he does absorb some. Now when he looks at the pages with the animals he starts saying "God made giraffe" or "God made ei-ei" ("ei-ei" is Nathan for monkey). Even with this encouragement, I have been getting discouraged that we are wasting our time reading the Bible to Nathan at this age because he understand so little. However, in light of Deuteronomy 6:7 I think that we need to crank it up a notch!

This article is also posted to Digitial Devotion.