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Last news: August 20, 2010 23:30:23

Far up in the deserted wastelands of the north, there once existed a great city. This was before the time when cities combined to make states and states to make nations; rather, the city of Norhama existed alone and unchallenged. It was situated on the crest of a very large hill, from which the townspeople could see the entirety of the surrounding countryside. However, it was not the city itself that attracted the wonder and admiration of the rest of the world, but rather the tree that existed within.

Indeed, at the top of the hill, in the very center of the city, lived an ancient fruit tree. There were two distinguishing features that set this tree apart as unique: the bark, and the fruit. The outer bark was a brilliant white; whiter than any white ever seen before by man. It was even reported that it was impossible to mark the tree in any way; either the skin was too hard, or the brilliance of the bark just covered up any imperfection. The fruit was also famed for its taste and its astonishing effects. Imagine a mix of strawberry and mango-melon; not the fake plasticized flavors you taste in the genetically engineered foods of today, but the sweet perfection of a Norhaman fruit. The effect of the fruit was to prolong life for those who tasted its sweet nectar; indeed, a few of those living in the city could faintly remember the good king who had given the fruit tree to Norhama so many long centuries ago. The townspeople loved their tree; thus, they had named it Angelion, their word for “hope”.

When the people of Norhama had received the generous gift from the king, they had initially been very liberal in giving the fruit to everybody who wanted some. Another astonishing facet of Angelion was that it never ran out of fruit, no matter how many were picked. To the people, this was a sign that the tree was setting an example of generosity that they needed to follow. Thus, for the first few centuries, the city grew very rapidly as many were taken into immortality. Rituals were formed around the tree so that all who needed the fruit could partake. During this time, the other cities scorned and mocked Norhama, for they thought that the idea of immortality was a lie. They besieged Norhama many times in order that they might try the fruit for themselves; many Norhamans died, but the city never surrendered. Despite the hardships, the numbers of those eating the fruit increased by leaps and bounds.

However, over the years, changes started to take place and small rifts began to form in the relationships of the Norhamans. Instead of being generous with the fruit, they began to lean towards stinginess. Reasoning that the fruit was very special, the elders of the city council decided that the tree needed to be guarded so that not just anybody could enter and eat. It was not as though the demand for the fruit had decreased in any way, the elders just decided to limit the amount of fruit that could be eaten per year. Those with the most money usually ended up being the recipients of the quota, while the poor suffered from the lack of the taste of the sweet nectar. The elders also devised complicated rituals in order that those who were going to eat would be “pure” enough to receive such an honor.

This continued for roughly three centuries, until men rose up to speak out against the tyranny of the elders. They claimed that the tree had been given many centuries ago by a gracious and generous king who had wanted everybody to have a chance at the fruit, not just the few elect who were under the graces of the council. These “reformers”, as they were called, took some of the fruit, and planted a new orchard so that the common man would be able to eat as well. During the reign of the council, the poorer townspeople had begun to lose faith in the abilities of the tree, and many had forgotten about the fruit altogether. However, when the new orchard took hold, the poorer classes began to increase in number. As they were refreshed by the fruit, they were able to see hope for the future; thus, they were more generous towards each other, and the general standard of living rose throughout the lower parts of the city.

However, the council was not happy about the new orchard that was exposing the falsity of their own claims. The emphasis had been placed more on the name of Norhama, than on the fruit itself; the tree was seen as a means to the ends of being a Norhaman. As you can imagine, the council was provoked to jealousy that the townspeople had lost their awe for elder’s customs, and so they tried to destroy the new saplings. However, no matter how hard they tried, the new traditions continued to grow in number and boldness. One reformer even had the gall to nail a picture of Angelion on the door of the council.

Yet, the council still had many under their power, and so the persecution began to take its toll. Because of this, many of the new reformers took their families and seeds from the trees to set off and start a new city. They founded Ecclesy, the town that eventually turned into a roaring miniature nation. Many of the reformers disagreed on how much they should separate from Norhama, and so different groups of Ecclesians were formed. The rest of the cities in the area noticed the split between the “tree-cities”, as they were called, and they took interest in how Ecclesy would turn out.

As the centuries passed along, both cities continued to grow; the beliefs of the council of Norhama were attractive because people wanted the feeling of knowing they had passed through the rigorous rituals in order to eat the fruit; Ecclesy grew because they taught that the fruit was free to all who wanted to partake. Many Ecclesians believed this so strongly, they would take seeds from the trees to start new orchards in other cities.

However, the many original groups of Ecclesians eventually formed into three main factions. The first believed that the original rituals were very important and they were better than the other cities because they had the fruit. This group took great pains to guard their fruit, and in doing so they forgot to take care of the trees; thus, the fruit lost its abilities over time due to the lack of attention. The second group believed that the fruit was no different from a regular apple or orange, and so they also did not take care of their trees. The result was the same. The third group saw the trees and the fruit as a gracious gift from a good king, and so they tended to their trees. They were very open about what they believed and they welcomed anybody to share in their amazing gift. The third group was known throughout the area for their kindness and graciousness towards outsiders; yet, they remained unwavering in their convictions.

Eventually, the king returned from his land across the sea. He immediately saw what had happened in his absence and he was deeply troubled by the many factions that had sprung up. By this time, the original tree, Angelion, had also lost its power. Ironically, from what the records show, all four of the main groups believed they would be the king’s favorite when he returned. Ironically, they were all wrong. The king had come to claim those who had remained faithful to the fruit through everything that had happened in his absence. However, all were astonished when the faithful were seen to be picked from every group. The King explained, “Did you not know? The main object was not the rituals or even the trees themselves. The emphasis was always to bring your thoughts back to me. I left the tree here as a gift to you so that you would remember me for when I returned. The fruit is the essence of my being; when you disregarded my gift, you disregarded me. I also gave the gift in order that you would have something to give to others; those of you who believed only you were worthy of my favor were wrong. I extended the gift to you in order that you would extend it to others in the same manner. Come, my beloved, let us leave.”

After gathering his faithful, the king set off across the sea, leaving those who were left behind to wonder at how they had missed the king’s intentions.

I finished Rob Bells Velvet Elvis last week, and I had a couple major problems with it which I am going to share in this post. However, before I get into the meat, I want to clarify one thing. I am not attempting in any way to vilify Rob Bell. I think he had pure motives for this book; but I am also convinced that he is stuck way off track and headed into more dangerous territory. Other than that, its a well-written book, and I would encourage anybody to read it... provide you dont check your mind at the front cover.

• The first problem I had with Velvet Elvis is that it is not just trying to "repaint" the Christian faith/doctrines, but also completely find another medium outside of paint. Bell is basically trying to take post-modernistic sh*t and use it to "repaint" Christian doctrine. Throughout the book, Bell is advocating to look at Church Doctrine in a new way (which I agree with), but he then says that everybody has to read the book for themselves and interpret for themselves. He claims right in the first chapter that Doctrine are like "springs" in that "it flexes, and it stretches". While I dont have nearly enough time to get into the major depths of this argument, I do want to point out the fact that these "doctrines" arent mans ideas; they were passed down to us from God/Jesus. Where it is often debated what concepts are to be considered "doctrine", this is beside the point. To say that we only need Jesus/we dont need doctrine, is to completely disregard the teachings of Jesus. Doctrine are the blinders on the eyes of the church that keep us completely focused on Jesus. They arent restricting laws, but rather focusing laws. They are there for a purpose, we cant just disregard that and get rid of them.




• Secondly, Bell paints Jesus as being the nice guy who lived/died and now is just a sort of Jediesque force of some sort. In one of his NOOMA videos, Bell says that when we pray, we are tapping into the creative "energy" of God. Well, I hate to burst your bubble Bell, but when we pray we are talking to a Father, not an impersonal force. Jesus wasnt a pot-smoking hippie boy from New Jersey who said that everything is fine as long as you dont get hurt; Jesus made very direct, black/white claims about who he was (John 8:58, John 14:6, etc.). Jesus did claim to be God, and as Christians we know his claims to be true. Also within this, Bell is confusing the purpose of Jesus Christ ever coming to earth. Bell claims in chapt 6, "When Jesus died on the cross, he died for everybody". This basically says that some people Jesus died for are in Hell. This brings up a problem. If Jesus atonement on the Cross left people in Hell, this would mean that Jesus death wasnt enough to cover our sins. We need something else besides Jesus? This is what Paul railed against his entire life. The equation is not Jesus + ___ = Salvation, but rather Jesus = Salvation. Plus, I cannot find anywhere in the Bible where it says that "everybody " and/or "anybody" can get into heaven. As fallen sinners, it is not our natural tendency to choose God. God can choose us, but we cant choose him. I could very well be wrong on this, though, so if anybody has evidence to the contrary, I would dearly like to see it.




• Thirdly, Bell is advocating a very selfish type of faith. He says in a couple places that the "potential" is within us, making it sound more like Oprah than like Jesus. In chapt 5, Bell is talking about the story of Peter walking on water, and he asks why Peter fell. "Who did Peter lose faith in? not Jesus; Jesus is doing fine. Peter loses faith in himself." Now, this brings up a very interesting question: Was it Peters faith in Peter that kept Peter afloat in the first place? If so, what do we need Jesus for? Once again, Bell reduces Jesus to merely showing the way instead of being the way. This is very common within New Age circles and post-modern thought, but youd rarely expect it to come from a Pastor who can explicate the Greek. haha.

The Goal...

Ever had that feeling where nothing is really working out in life; youre exhausted past the point of caring and you would rather just die and go to heaven than stay on earth any longer? I know Ive been there; yet, its in those moments that we are too tired to carry on that God can work his greatest wonders.
When a runner competes in a race, what goes through his mind? The adrenaline is coursing through the veins; butterflies in the stomach. Yet, it is not as though he has just jumped out of the stands in order to run. Rather, he has gone through strict training for long periods of time in order to reach where he is now. During the training, what keeps him going? Surely not the pain! Surely its not the many miles traversed or the weights lifted! No! When an athlete undergoes numerous hours of practice, it is only in the hopes that he will reach the final goal.

Paul, in 1 Cor 9:24-27, compares the Christian life to a race. We often quote these verses, yet rarely do we stop and think about what it implies. Paul says that we go into training for this race of life. However, in order for the training to mean anything, we must keep our focus where focus is due. "What is this goal?", you ask? The goal and end prize for any Christian is Jesus Christ.


Getting there...

In the end, when we all stand before God, the little stuff in life (Coke/Pepsi, Ford/Chevy, Mac/PC, etc.), wont count for anything. It is not our lifestyle that saves us, but rather the Grace of Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3 (one of my favorite chapters in all of scripture), Paul describes his life and his accomplishments. In the Jewish system, he would have been the top dog among any cocktail (wine) circuit he chose. However, in verse 12, he makes the wildest statement ever, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on..."

Where does pride originate? It develops when we begin to compare ourselves to other humans. However, Pauls example in this passage is that he is comparing himself not to the other Jews, but rather to Jesus Christ. Folks, on the scale of perfection, we are closer to Adolf Hitler and Ted Bundy than we are to Jesus. This line of thinking brings humility and allows God to work in us and through us, rather than a lowly human attempting to manipulate God.

The writer of Hebrews says in chapter 12 that we must throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run hard the race marked out for us. So often we get worried about the road ahead instead of focusing completely on the end reward in Jesus. Our victory is not in ourselves; if it were, I would be royally doomed. Rather, our hope and our confidence is placed in Jesus.

Thus, let us fix our eyes and focus on the prize. Let us not wander and stray, but stick to the narrow way. Let us run hard the race we see, for before the race is even run, we have victory.

That is our hope. That is our prize. Run it.

I’d barely got my new series of “Internet Safety Sunday” up and running when I was approached by Brightfilter to see if I was willing to review their software.

Of course I said yes and made it abundantly clear that to do it justice I would need an unrestricted version and that it would be totally unbiased without fear of favour. The only pre-deal I agreed to is that I’d let the company see this review first so that they could “respond to it as necessary” – you can see their response at the end in red.

So…

Who are Brightfilter?

They are a Bath (UK) based company that is fairly new (since 2004) to the world of filtering but appear to have made quite an impact already. They provide internet security solutions that “protect children online both at school and at home”.

From information found on their website they only “provide solutions” that meet standards or guidelines published by groups such as: CIPA; IIA; ISPA and IWF. They are also now a McAfee Premier partner.

What do they offer?

The easy answer is to say see the web but in short they offer:

• Family surfing protection and
• Educational surfing protection

Though these two broad sweep categories are far from the complete picture. The first is via a windows application and the second is typically via an appliance such as the McAfee Web Gateway unit.

Reviewing Brightfilter is a post from: Church Techy

Much has been written over the years about having purpose and in particular about having a purpose driven life but I want to look at it from a slightly different perspective.

I’m sure you’ve heard of bucket lists – well put simply a bucket list is a purpose driven list.

Or put it another way a list of purposes.

Now I’m not saying that a bucket list should or even will replace your purpose but two things spring to mind:

1. If you have a purpose already then this can be a great cathartic listing of additional ‘fun’ desires that can help you along the way with your purpose and
2. If you don’t or haven’t yet found your purpose then this exercise could also help reveal your purpose

So how do you create your own bucket list?

First off set aside some time and then start writing down what comes to mind as you read these questions:

- What if you were to die tomorrow? What would you wish you could do before you die?

- What have you always wanted to do but have not done yet?

- What will you do if you have unlimited time, money and resources?

- Any countries, places or locations you want to visit?

- What are your biggest goals and dreams?

- What achievements do you want to have?

- What experiences do you want to have / feel?

- Are there any special moments you want to witness?

- What activities or skills do you want to learn or try out?

- What are the most important things you can ever do?

- What would you like to say/do together with other people? People you love? Family? Friends?

- Are there any specific people you want to meet in person?

- What do you want to achieve in the different areas: Social, Love, Family, Career, Finance, Health (Your weight, Fitness level), Spiritual?

- What do you need to do to lead a life of the greatest meaning?

So there you have it – a Purpose Driven Life meets a Bucket List.

• So do you have a purpose?
• What about a bucket list?

Purpose Driven Life is a post from: Church Techy

Security of your PC is down to more than just having an Anti-Virus and/or firewall to protect it.

It’s more than ensuring you follow security best practices – see here or here.

It’s more than not clicking random links sent to you by your mates.

It’s more than running WindowsUpdate on a regular basis – for the record I don’t have it set to auto update.

It also includes ensuring your application software is up to date.

But how do you do that?

Well  let me introduce you to the wonderful world of patch management software and in particular my favourite tool of choice – Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspector).

PSI is, yet another app, that is best left running all the time. Initially it scans your PC (mainly for exe, .dll, and .ocx files) and then consults its own database of software signatures. Once this is done it is able to identify the version of software running and advise on whether it is out of date or has a vulnerability. The choice still remains yours to update or not but again PSI makes it relatively easy to do this by providing links to the discussion, the updates etc.

Best of all it’s free to home users.

It has a small system footprint and I can see no sensible reason why you wouldn’t run it or similar software – Secunia even has an online version (OSI not surprisingly) now but this is limited in the extent of its coverage – see here for a comparison chart. Naturally the online one doesn’t cover as much ground as PSI but is good for a quick check without installing anything.

That said – I’ve run PSI for years now and whilst there are other products I have yet to see  one match PSI’s simplicity and ease of use. It even comes with a basic or advance usage for the nerds amongst us.

PC Patch Management is a post from: Church Techy

One of the most annoying aspects of Windows 7 (I find) is that lots of software doesn’t autostart or autorun properly. Let me explain with an example … do you use Piriform’s excellent ccleaner?

Do you use it the same way as I do – by right-clicking on my recycle bin?

If so, are you fed up with Windows 7 asking you for permission to run it?

This is the UAC in action.

Then the answer is that you need to run the item as an administrator and Windows 7 gives us have five options to do that – though not all would necessarily work for all situations and some will still ask you to confirm you are the admin or want to run as admin.

1. By using a keyboard shortcut - however this won’t work for software like ccleaner where you don’t have a shortcut you can run (though you can create one) – press and hold Ctrl + Shift while opening the program.

2. You can right-click the program and select the “run as administrator” from the context menu.

3. Use compatibility mode which you can set to always allow a specific app to run as admin. I find the easiest way to do this is to find the program executable and right-click it, select properties, find the ‘compatability mode’ tab and tick the  box that says ‘run as administrator’.

4. Configure the programs advanced properties. To do this right-click the program (or icon), find the shortcut tab and click on advanced and as with item 3 click on the ‘run as administrator’ box.

5. Finally we can create a shortcut with elevated ‘run as administrator’ status and combine this with task scheduler to run any app in an elevated mode without the UAC popping up. But we’ll leave that one for another time or even another site.

OK – so let’s bring this full circle.

For my purposes I wanted to run ccleaner without UAC popping up – ever. The options that allow me to do this are 3 and 4 above. Option 5 will allow me to set a scheduled task to run in admin mode whilst options 1 and 2 will do this on an ad-hoc basis.

However, options 3 and 4 allow me to set an app to run for any user whatever their level of access.

Windows 7 Tips #5 is a post from: Church Techy

Andrew over @Webstudio13 has written a blog post that, in his own words says:

There is something called “Twitter Etiquette.” There are a number of articles that have outlined what not to do with Twitter, and I have read most of them. Consider this post as a summary of all those pointers.

Some of the points are downright obvious “don’t ignore others” – “don’t defame others” – well at least I think they are; whilst others I just totally disagree with “don’t neglect trending topics”. However the one thing that really got my goat about the article was its presentation of points as accepted facts without any explanation.

Take:

#10. Do not tweet way too less (People forget your existence) and
#42. Do not be reluctant to unfollow people who don’t tweet often

Why?

If your purpose in using Twitter is to learn stuff or follow links to blog posts, etc and not to actually promote yourself or your brand / business then what is wrong with only tweeting once in a blue moon? To my mind this makes the tweets all the more interesting – so long as they are.

#11. Do not only follow celebrities (They are boring)

Why not?

If this is your idea of relaxing then why not? Personally I don’t think I follow any huge names but the few ‘celebs’ (and I use that word guardedly) I do follow all, so far, have something worthwhile to say.

#17. Do not auto follow back everybody and
#18. Do not follow everybody you meet (Be selective)

Why on earth not?

What harm can really come in auto-following someone? Clicking on random links from DM’s is another story though. Or why shouldn’t you follow everyone you meet (not quite sure what is meant by ‘meet’ here)?

It’s your twitter account so do what you want with it.

OK, if you want to build a brand or a business or a huge following then that’s one thing, but if, as I suspect, like most of us on twitter we are just ordinary Joe’s and Jane’s then I don’t get these.

Let’s have a look at some more:

#30. Do not neglect trending topics

Tell me why?

More subjectively, let’s do this by looking at the trending topics right now:

#nowplayingPeople are tweeting their media choice of the moment.
#OhJustLikeMePeople are tweeting things that they’ve discovered they have in common.
#MJis
Liverpool
#imthekindofperson
#idoit2People are retweeting things they have in common.
Justin BieberThe young Canadian R&B/pop singer has a lot of fans who like to tweet about him! His second album, My World 2.0, comes out March 23.
My World 2@justinbieber’s new album comes out March 23 and his fans are excited.
#hcrHealth Care Reform. People are tweeting news about this issue in the U.S.
I’m okay

Not one of those things is even remotely making me want to click on them.

And when Michael Jackson died I didn’t need trending topics to tell me – I’ve got lots of celeb obsessed folks around me that couldn’t wait to let me know. That and even with only a few followers you’re still bound to hear stuff like this.

#34. Do not forget to archive your tweets (Back up! I use twapperkeeper)

Another why?

I can guess some reasons but I’m here to learn from you so tell me why you think I should back up my tweets – don’t command me and expect me to do it blindly -though I know some will.

#43. Do not forget to integrate your tweets with other social media platforms, such as Friendfeeds, Facebook, and LinkedIn

Surely this is only relevant if you’re attempting to build a brand or promote one? Personally I see and use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as three separate entities. I have some crossovers but on the whole different uses for different sites.

It also makes me less ’samey’ and a more rounded individual because I’m not following the same folks across three platforms – what’s the point in that?

#48. Do not forget to install a mobile app to help you tweet while away from your computer
#50. Do not leave your iPhone charger at home when you are going out (It has happened to me three time when I tried to use TweetDeck with an exhausted iPhone battery.)

My answer to these two – get a life and stop worrying about the online aspect of it.

It will still be there when you do get battery power.

Dis-connect for a while.

Talk to those near you that you love or love you.

Sadly this brings to mind a tweet I’ve seen only this morning:

I love “couch time” with my beautiful wife on Sunday mornings! We’re talking about our up-coming anniversary!

No names, no pack drill and I’m not picking on them but the point is why are you tweeting this? If you love that person enough to talk with them then put down the phone / laptop / whatever.

What annoys you about articles like this and am I as guilty as some of the points I’ve raised?

Sunday Rant. Why or Why Not? is a post from: Church Techy

This looks awesome and I want one.

However it isn’t available until Q4 2010 according to the makers (22moo) website and although I’m not a huge gamer I can see where and how this could be of benefit even to me.

Some of its features are (will be):

• Styling to compliment iPod/iPhone with optimized design for ergonomics and comfort
• 2000mAh Lithium-ion Battery for additional power for your iPod touch / iPhone
• LED showing charging state and capacity
• 8-way D-Pad with 6 buttons
• Built-in Stereo speakers
• Highly sensitive omni directional Mic
• 3.5mm audio headphone jack

No idea on price yet but I guess it’ll be in the £15 to £35 range and I’ve submitted my name for a review of one – will see what happens there.

Game Bone is a post from: Church Techy

If you work with networks in any serious way then you will almost certainly have come across WireShark by now  (or Ethereal as it was formerly known).

Anyway, Laura Chappell who writes a well known blog “Inside Laura’s Lab” has now come out with a book to help us network techy types make the most of WireShark.

In her words:

Laura Chappell’s Wireshark Network Analysis book is filled with tips, tricks and techniques for new and experienced analysts, this will be a must-have book.

Get your book from the usual places or direct from WireSharkU or ChappellU and use this code: 998nws35 to get a 35% discount. The discount is valid until March 29th 2010 and only works on the two listed sites.

WireShark Book Discount is a post from: Church Techy

I recall a day, not too long ago, that there used to be a fair number of “rescue” tools out and about on the market.

My preferred go to tool of the day was FProt.

These days I didn’t know of one until AVG (yes, them of the free Anti Virus) released their latest product – the AVG Rescue CD.

But what does a ‘rescue CD’ do? In simple terms it is a stand alone, self-booting CD (or USB stick) that contains Anti Virus, Anti Malware and more besides. AVG have gone a step further though and added a few extra tools into it to make a truly versatile product.

In their words:

The AVG Rescue CD is essentially a portable version of AVG Anti-Virus supplied through Linux distribution. It can be used in the form of a bootable CD or bootable USB flash drive to recover your computer when the system cannot be loaded normally, such as after an extensive or deep-rooted virus infection. In short, the AVG Rescue CD enables you to fully remove infections from an otherwise inoperable PC and render the system bootable again.

Apart from the usual AVG functions (malware detection and removal, updates from internet or external device, etc.), the AVG Rescue CD also contains the following set of administration tools:

• Midnight Commander – a two-panel file manager
• Windows Registry Editor– simple registry editor for more experienced users
• TestDisk – powerful hard drive recovery tool
• Ping – to test the availability of network resources (servers, domains, IP addresses)
• Common Linux programs and services– vi text editor, OpenSSH daemon, ntfsprogs etc

I’ll certainly be adding it to my repertoire of tools to take when I visit friends and relations that have infected machines.

What tools do you use?

AVG Rescue CD is a post from: Church Techy

Not sure how long this has been around, but Nmap (the free and open source utility for network exploration or security auditing) has now gained a graphical frontend.

Zenmap may not look like much, but it does make life easier for those afraid of the command line. It allows for interactive creation of Nmap command lines and saving of scans historically for comparison, etc. The main benefit here is that zenmap now makes Nmap more accessible by both beginners and advanced users alike.

Nmap Goes Graphic is a post from: Church Techy

I like to do this occasionally and give out some stats that aren’t usually seen by others. Today’s episode is browser usage for accessing this site.

It’s not surprising that as this blog is mostly aimed at technical issues that the top 3 or even 5 browsers are those that are newer ones on the market or recognised as being used by those that are:

• clued up about security or
• nerdy or
• recognise some shortcomings in IE or
• some other reason

Whatever the reason(s) for using the browsers the above chart breaks down this way (%ages rounded up/down):

• Firefox – 40%
• IE8 – 28%
• Chrome – 13%
• Safari 4 – 9%
• iPhone – 5%
• IE6 – 2%
• IE7 – 2%
• Opera 9 – 1%

The only other thing that surprises me is that there aren’t any other browsers used – that or the analytics doesn’t recognise them as separate entities and lumps them under another category. For example, is the iPhone the only mobile browser to have accessed this site? On the face of the figures UI have to say yes but experience says it’s more likely to be a mix.

Browser Stats is a post from: Church Techy

I recently received a question about the purpose of prayer; what exactly are we doing when we bow our heads and talk to God? In Nooma 019 "Open", Rob Bell says that we become "co-creators" with God when we pray; is this true? What is the example of Jesus within the scriptures? If God is completely sovereign, then what is the point in praying? Is there any purpose to prayer outside of getting what we desire? James 1:17 says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." What is this gig call we call prayer?

Well, in the purest sense, prayer is the relationship between a child and their father. Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:5-15 by starting off with the phrase "Our Father". Mark Driscoll touches on this in his Pray Like Jesus sermon series. The purest example we have of prayer here on earth, is a kid talking to their dad. The conversation is not out of duty or obligation, but rather out of love. I know that there are those who do not have an exemplary father here on earth; however, do not judge God by your father, judge your father by God. We have been given complete freedom to approach the throne of Grace and talk to the creator of the universe.

From that standpoint, it should not be selfish desire or duty that drives us to our knees to pray, but rather love for our Father in heaven. Many people see prayer as a kind of blank check or limitless credit card that we can go and get whatever we want from God. However, this is nowhere in scripture. Romans 8:29 says that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. In this way, our desires are exchanged for Gods desires. In this way, prayer is not about changing God, but rather about changing us.

However, prayer isnt just tapping into an "energy" of some sort that we can manipulate. Its talking to God, the creator of the Universe. He is Creator, we are creation. We cannot create. Yet, when we talk to Jesus, he works on our hearts to work his purpose through us. The Bible compares the Christian church as being the "bride" of Christ. Who, when they are married, only talks to their husband when they need something from him? Thatd just be dumb, and it doesnt help any growth in the relationship. We are called to mature in our faith, and the only way to do this is through Jesus.

One last thing, prayer isnt something we have to do, its something we get to do. The God of the universe allows us into the Godhead through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, to only talk to him when we want something is to pervert this amazing gift. God created us to be in relationship with Him and to worship him, not see him as a holy vending machine. Its not as if we push the right buttons, God will finally release the goods. A couple years back, a guy came out with a book called "the prayer of Jabez"; the idea is that if we say the right words in our prayers, God will bless us. It turns into a works thing where we are trying to justify ourselves in the sight of God through what we do. This is completely wrong, and its what drove Jesus to rail against the pharisees in Matthew 23.

Dont take for granted this amazing gift that God has blessed us with. Ecclesiastes 5 says that we should not hurriedly approach the throne with our babbling. Sometimes we need to just appreciate his grace be satisfied in Him without whining for more. That change comes through prayer. Not that we can manipulate God, but rather that God can work in our hearts, exchanging our hearts of stone for hearts of flesh (Eze 36:26) and blessing us with the ability to follow after Him. This is the Christian Life.

-Cheers

This is an excerpt from the book Im writing, hope you enjoy!



Throughout the ages, there has been no more controversial figure than that of Jesus Christ. Because of him; wars have been fought; nations have been conquered; kings and popes have been enthroned; revolutions have started. Because of him, people have been murdered, crucified, burned alive, cut in two, trampled, stoned, and exiled; most of this at the hands of their own governments. To deny the fact that Jesus had any impact on the world is basically to stick your head in the sand and plug your ears to the world around you. He even had so much an impact that he divided the two halves of our calendar, AD and BC. He obviously was an important historical figure, regardless of your beliefs.

To deny that he even existed is also an untenable position. There are actually more documents that support the existence of Jesus, than support the existence of Tiberius Caesar, the Roman Emperor at the time of Christ. The only reason people ever resort to this position is because they are overwhelmed with the evidence and need an argument under which they can hide. The argument is so ridiculous that I will not even warrant it a response. In this chapter, we will presuppose that the existence of Jesus Christ is valid.

There are many different positions that people take on Jesus Christ and his relation with the church. Other authors have already taken the time to explain the three main positions that can be taken on Jesus, and so I will just outline them in brief: Jesus was either a fake (liar), a lunatic, or He was who He said He was, namely God.


FAKE:
There are two sides to this argument: either Jesus was purposefully lying, or he himself was misled. For both of these ideas, there are many problems. If Jesus was lying, he would have been just a regular human being, no more important than anybody else living in his day. However, many different authors record the miracles that Jesus performed throughout his ministry, not just the Biblical writers. Josephus says this,

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

Many others have undertaken to write numerous critiques and criticisms on the church; thus, I will try not to run into the trap of "church bashing". However, I do want to point a few things out about the modern "church" that need to be addressed if the body of Christ truly wants to thrive. As of now, the American church is dying-- rapidly-- very rapidly. In this series of posts, Im going to try and dive into this disease to see if we can find what indeed is infecting Christianity. The American church is currently tempting consequence by continuing on this path. Decisions have consequences; bad decisions have bad results. Welcome to life.

However, before I try to address the problem, I need to show you that there actually is a problem in the first place. Well, to ease your mind, I will do just that. The accepted number right now is that 70-88% of "Christian" young people "leave" the faith by their sophomore year in college. Without getting into the deep theology behind this assumption, let us extrapolate these numbers out into the future. Well use 80% as a relatively average number. Thus, for every 10 Christians under the age of 20, only 2 will be left by the time they graduate.

If we take a small sample of 100,000 Christians, there will be 20,000 left after the first generation. If they take Pauls command seriously to not be unequally yoked, there will be 9,000 Christian couples within this group (assuming a marriage rate of 90% and a 50/50 male/female ratio). Going with an average birth rate of 2 children per family, we get 18,000 children. This is just after the first generation. Using the same numbers, the statistics line up like this:

gen A: 100,000             gen A: 100,000,000
gen B:  18,000             gen B:  18,000,000
gen C:   3,240      OR     gen C:   3,240,000
gen D:     583             gen D:     583,200
gen E:     105             gen E:     104,976

Weve all heard the phrase, right? Whether on a t-shirt, billboard, or in a philosophy textbook, this audacious claim by Nietzsche revolutionized the world we live in. However, despite the limelight claimed by this quote, we rarely think about the implications it carries with it. If God is truly dead, what happens? Or if, as atheists will claim, God never existed, what are the logical conclusions that can be drawn from such a belief? I am not attempting to disprove Nietzsche; rather, I am merely going to extrapolate this idea that "God is Dead", and take it to its logical end. Welcome to the world of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Here is an extended edition of Nietzsches quote from "The Gay Science":

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.

"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers..."

I hope from my last post, you would have seen that there is a problem within modern Christianity. A disease, if you will, that is beginning to eat away at the church from the inside. I believe this problem has its original roots within the garden of Eden when our first parents decided to eat a particular fruit; however, the past century with Christendom has only exacerbated the wound. Left untended and ignored, this problem will only grow to magnificent proportions and eventually the church will be pinned by its own power.

My main point in this post is to explore the evolution of diction within the church. Im devoting an entire chapter to this subject in my book (if I ever finish it), but heres a very small snippet that should help to clear some things up:

First, there is a major distinction that needs to be made in order to understand the “Church”. We have slipped into the idea that the “Church” is the building. However, the original Greek is ekklesia which referred to a gathering of people, usually in a political situation. Thus, I am going to divide the lines right from the start. When I refer to the “Church” (capital “C”), I am referring to the body of the believers, either universal or local. When referring to the “church” (small “c”), I am talking about the set of ideas that limit the bride of Christ into a building. Mixing these two terms is inherently dangerous and can often lead to miscommunication and arguments within the ‘church’.

• The first problem that arises out of this diction slip is the change in philosophy from an "us Church" to a "them church". Let me explain this further. When the Church is perceived as merely a building, everything that was before the (C)hurchs responsibility now becomes the (c)hurchs responsibility. In other words, everything is put off onto the "other guy", because the person is seen as a separate entity from the church. When you separate the church from Christians, you will end up with bunches of people that herd in and herd out within the span of two hours on Sunday. What you will not receive is willing help in all areas from those who attend. The church is perceived more as a country club where the staff take care of the problems and everybody else just shows up for the kicks and giggles. Such an attitude is why the church has dropped the ball in many areas including community service and helping out those in need. This service space reserved for the church is now being filled in by the government, though it is a very nasty and unwelcome fit. When the church steps down from its position as a model for the community, what do you expect to happen?



• Another outpouring from this paradigm shift is the limiting of the Christian life. When all Christians perceived themselves as part of a tightly-knit community, they would be more likely to allow Jesus to infiltrate all areas of their lives. When the church is merely a building and staff, worship becomes a one-hour service on Sundays. The Christian life becomes a limited "sacred" institution that only happens on the weekends; the rest of the week morphs into the "secular". However, this is a false dichotomy. To say that one-hour of our lives is holy and the other 167 hours are "worldly" is to deny the heart behind the message of Jesus. He didnt send us into the world to live like the world; rather, he calls us to be salt (Mat 5:13) and light (Mat 5:14), set apart from the world (2 Tim 2:21, John 17:17). The Christian life is transcendent over hours; it does not bow down to the god of time. Rather, it is only when Christianity is lived out in all areas that we can actually be witnesses to this world.



• Lastly, this separation of the (c)hurch from the (C)hurch furthers the idea within Christianity that we are better than outsiders. Instead of being a city on a hill, the church builds walls around it that block the light from ever reaching the rest of the world. To be sure, human efforts cannot block Gods perfect will; however, in our sinful nature, we constantly are deceived by the lie that we are better than everybody else. The Truth is we are not better than the non-Christian; it is nothing we did that separates us from the world. In terms of righteousness, we are closer to Hitler, Stalin, and Bin Laden than we are to Jesus Christ. It is not our righteousness that we proclaim, it is that of Jesus. As Paul says, "I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Cor 12:9) Without Jesus, we would be headed to hell just as much as the next guy. Thus, when we wall ourselves off from the world as if we are better, we not only are displaying our own stupidity and pride, we also are perverting the Truth of the gospel. This is something we are all guilty of. As Paul says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."(Gal 2:20)