Tag: joy

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IP Six Day

I am such a geek.  Today is World IPv6 Day, and that is so exciting!  No really, that is exciting.  For, a geek this change in addressing opens up the internet for more and more stuff.  That’s a big deal in a connected world – I mean really having over 4 billion times more space is a great thing.

I was trying to think of some clever way to relate this to anything in the world, and I think I am failing this morning.  So, I guess, that fact that it’s IPv6 day is, well, a who cares moment.

But the fact that this day was made by the creator of the world, there is still life in the day!

So, change your IP addresses, and enjoy the day!

21-25 Thank you for responding to me;
you’ve truly become my salvation!
The stone the masons discarded as flawed
is now the capstone!
This is God’s work.
We rub our eyes—we can hardly believe it!
This is the very day God acted—
let’s celebrate and be festive!
Salvation now, God. Salvation now!
Oh yes, God—a free and full life! Psalm 118:24 The Message (MSG)

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Mobile Liberation

Yesterday I traded in my old Windows Mobile Phone for an iPhone, and immediately I felt like I have been released from the throws of mobile phone captivity.  This iPhone is so easy to use, so nice to read, and just so, well,  so freeing.  Gone are the days of a user interface that was odd, a misbehaving ‘touchscreen’, and the limits of only having access to limited applications.  I want to shout from the mountaintops, or maybe just tweet it and post it to Facebook!

Yes, freedom.  When bonds are released and new limits are opened it is such a fantastic feeling.  The feeling of freedom and the joys of freedom are something I write about quite often – because it is so nice.  However, when it comes to spiritual freedom, sometimes, we want to stay in our bondage.  But look at this, the creator of the world says, give me your bondage:

7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 New International Version (NIV)

This spiritual liberation, that comes oddly enough though a complete surrender is a really good thing. It makes the joy of the iPhone look like the joy you can get from a lead balloon.

Cast you anxiety on him and enjoy freedom. (oh , and then tweet about it!)

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11 New International Version (NIV)

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The Joy of Freedom

Last night  I brought my oldest home from school and he realized that between now and next Wednesday night, the only thing he had to do was to take one test and go to church on Sunday morning.

What freedom!  I anticipate the that the joy he will feel as he finishes his last exam today and understand that he is free (for a while) from the confines of school and homework.  Oh, the joy of being able to do whatever he wants with no projects or major commitments hanging over his head.

There is so much joy in freedom.  I treasure the days when I am not handcuffed with a day full of schedule meetings.  We yearn for the simple days of vacations when we have no one telling us where to be and what to do. ( let me pause and reflect… oh only 18 more work days!!)  And our spirits compel us to look for something that set us free from the curse of the daily toils, and when we find it- oh what joy.

 16-18Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18, The Message)

As we enter the Memorial day weekend, be so thankful for those who have come before us to fight for the freedom that we enjoy in this country.  And with that also remember how that freedom facilitates access to the the spiritual freedom that comes from the Christ.

Share it!  You are free to!  Woot Woot!!

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Making Others Better

Man its tough.  Trying to understand that at times your only purpose in life to to help others.  The selfish impulses that are woven deep inside of us want to take over and push the others out of the way. However, when you are able to swallow pride, develop some patience and provide assistance to others it always seems better in the end.

I know that when I do that I am a better spouse, father, and co worker.  So what is it still so difficult to not just chuck those people to the wind and move on with out them?  Casting aside a personal agenda for the sake of other seem so fundamentally wrong when we examine ourselves, yet is is the cry of the Christ.

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16, New International Version, ©2011)

and there’s this

25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:25, New International Version, ©2011)

So, today, I am trying to figure out how to lose myself, how to give up on my personal agenda and how to make the others that I am blessed to be around better. Any ideas?

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On Notice

Last night I was listening to the JJ Heller’s song “Love Me” while I was streaming K-Love Radio in the hotel room. It’s a very nice song with a very emotional plea in the chorus:

Who will love me for me
Not for what I have done or what I will become
Who will love me for me
‘Cause nobody has shown me what love
What love really means

So, of course I started thinking about these words, not that I was dwelling on these thoughts from a personal perspective, but it did strike me that this song describes some of everyone’s basic needs. The more I thought about it, the more I started thinking about my daily life and the number of peeople I may have a chance to impact as the person who shows love.

Take a moment to consider the people around you – the people you deal with everyday. Who will you notice? Who will you see as a person created by God placed in your path today by the creator of the world? That seems to change the way we will interact with each and every person. It seems that maybe we will want to love them for them, and not what they may or may not have done for us.

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4, New International Version, ©2011)