Trying new blog app – Lite version of Blogbooster.
Update on 020811: Realize didn’t need a different blog app for my iPhone; just needed to put the correct information in the one I have been using. Oops.
Mini-review: Blogwriter for iPhone has worked very well for me. Now that I caught my mistake is working very well again. If you are looking for a cheap mobile blogging app for your iPhone, you should give it a try.
Just a brief post to say that I haven’t entirely bailed on the podcast. If you follow very many podcasts as I do, you will hear often the podcaster speaking of having time to do this regularly. I still feel that this is part of how I can serve and share. At this point I am still figuring out my plan; probably need to rethink.
If I could come up with a good mobile plan that would help. Unfortunately the mobile solutions such as cellspin are flash based in presentation so that rules out access to people using iPhones, which includes me and several million others. I don’t like that plan.
Getting my iPhone a few months ago was a tremendous boost for my blog. I am much more active. Now I just have to find a way to do the same for the podcast, or possibly rethink my paradigm to a more regular and workable solution from my Mac.
dave
Being nice may be for some a good place to start, but Christians are called to much more.
We have all had these people in our lives. They can appear to be the nicest people in the world. In fact appearance is everything to this person. But it’s all appearance. No fruit. That is why I personally would rather be known for kindness, goodness – you know, the fruity stuff – not for being “nice.”
You see nice is too often a manufactured product designed and engineered in the dark places of the human heart. Let’s look like we are giving and caring and loving, so we can get what we want. Dark. Where’s the flashlight, Harold? This is really dark.
You’ve heard the expression “I don’t get mad; I get even.” Well, the “nice manipulator” gets mad and gets even. You just may not know it until the noose is around your neck, and they are extracting payment for your transgressions.
When my receptors begin picking up the signals of a “nice” person like this, I sometimes get nervous. They flatter, they smile, they say all the right things. They welcome you into their world.
But beware the hooks.
Because if you fall for the flattery and manipulation and take the bait, then they’ve got you. You are in, but you are only one misdeed from having their support to being number one on their bad list.
Personal experience. That’s not a real good place to be.
But here’s some good news; some really good news.
Manipulators do not rule the universe. I do not need to bow before the manipulator, no matter how nice they are. 🙂
Jesus Christ, Creator and Redeemer, is Sovereign Lord of all.
And Jesus does not manipulate. When you cross him, when you disobey him, when you disappoint him. He stands ready with grace and mercy.
Now that’s nice.
Following Jesus I mean.
It’s a path, not a formula, not a set of equations and not principles for good living that we wring out of God’s word to craft our lives apart from bowing before his throne.
A new friend shared something with me several days ago. He was speaking of a mentor he had some years ago. His mentor taught him that math is a language, and that concept brought a life-changing moment to my friend, a dramatic shift that gave my him a perspective that he believes allows him to see things that others cannot.
And I thought … hmmmm. We sometimes do the opposite.
We take the language of the Bible, God’s message to us, and we reduce it to formulas and equations and principles.
And it seems okay if we don’t give it much thought. What could be so wrong with going to the Bible and figuring out principles to live by. Doesn’t seem so bad, maybe even good.
But as a result we do not see things that we should see. In fact we sometimes see our world just like everybody else does. We don’t have God’s perspective on life; we have our perspective on life as wrangled from his holy words.
Because we misunderstand and omit a key element – the fear of the LORD.
We don’t take wisdom by our wits and our study. We receive wisdom as we bow before God. We can “take” knowledge about God. We can fashion formulas and spiritual equations.
But in doing so we miss the words that would come to us “from his mouth.”
Should we study God’s word? Yes.
Is that a good thing? Only if we are not counting on our study to provide wisdom instead of our study deepening our relationship with a God who will speak those very words written on the pages of our Bibles directly to us.
A God who will press those words deeply into our hearts.
May I ask? When is the last time you read or studied the Bible and you were wowed because you knew the words were “from his mouth?”
“All the best people are.”
From “Alice in Wonderland”
Alice – “Do you think I’ve gone around the bend?”
Father – “I’m afraid so. You’re mad. Bonkers. Off your head. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”
If doctrine is teaching …
Sometimes I am frustrated by the inconsistency of fellow Christians.
Not all groups, but some, quite a few actually have elevated “doctrine” to such heights that even the definition of doctrine itself has been distorted.
“Doctrine” is first and foremost. And almost always with that perspective is a careful, as in fearful, approach to the love of God.
“You can’t get carried away with love.”
But you can get carried away with doctrine? That’s okay?
Even though by definition, loving God and loving your neighbor would have to be considered the two greatest, most important doctrines.
We are inconsistent.
Somehow doctrine is safe and the love of God is the first step toward a slippery slope.
“What does the Word of God say?” That is the basis for good doctrine. Safe territory. Approved.
And I agree. So what does the word of God say? If we are going to be consistent, then let’s listen as God speaks.
Anyone else see a pattern here?
Review: If a commandment is teaching, and teaching is doctrine, then the Great Commandment would have to be the greatest doctrine.
And loving God is the great commandment, with loving your neighbor as a close second.
That is what the word of God says.
Did I tell you? I think not.
My wife and I are using the NASB for our Bible reading this year.
I cannot say enough about consistent reading of God’s word.
In my book “Living by the Words of God” I have my 4 R’s:
Just recently I have added another R:
Back to the lab …
As with any “field testing” some adjustments will be made in our pursuit of God through his holy book the Bible.
So we learn it, take it to the practice field, work it out, and then back to sit before our Master for more lessons.
We don’t learn the ways and thoughts of God by merely study but by living these truths in the laboratory we call life.
“Because of practice” … “by constant use” …
We study for direction but the cycle is not complete until we live the truth.
I read Psalm 15 this morning, and I thanked God for the opportunity through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his shed blood to be close enough to him that my world can’t be shaken.
And I thought what a great place to be – “will never be shaken.”
I mean, this world can be; the wheels can come off in an instant.
But this world in view of God is what I think we are being taught. Looking at my life from the safe place inside God’s tent. Peering over the events of this world from God’s holy hill.
J. J. Heller’s song “Your Hands” – “When my world is shaking, heaven stands.”
That’s what Psalm 15 is talking about. Living in a place where the shaking of this world is in perspective.
The middle verses speak of a lifestyle that allows us this degree of intimacy that we never lose sight of God through all the anguish of life.
He who does these these things; the person whose lifestyle is one in which God dominates his or her choices.
And this person who lets God be God in the details?
Becomes the person to whom God is God in the crisis. And no amount of shaking in this world will dislodge him or her from the perspective of God’s tent or his holy hill.
Ain’t nothin’, nobody, or no how gonna’ do that! (That’s in the Bible somewhere. I think maybe a loose paraphrase of Romans 8.37-39.) 🙂
As I said, “Ain’t nothin’, ain’t no how gonna’ shake us” as we view life from God’s holy hill.
“I have no good besides you.”
“Pretty much sums up my life” I thought as I read through Psalm 16 this morning.
Without God I have nothing, and I am nothing.
No false modesty here; just the cold, hard facts. I am lost without God; a foolish man stumbling in darkness.
But with God …
The path of life …
I find and follow him on the path of life, eternal life, beyond my greatest hope.
Oh, God my Father, praise you. Right now I praise you for your words. As I read them you speak truth to me. Praise you, mighty King!
“Amen.” And this David says, “You are my Lord.” And again I say “Amen.”
And now a word from our sponsors …
Not really. I have no sponsors, but I do have two excellent – and I mean excellent – FREE software applications to recommend to you.
Did you catch “excellent” and “free”?
Dropbox
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Evernote
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Much more on both of these. Go to the sites. You will be glad you did.
