(Part one of two parts)
Christmas 1972. Forty-eight years ago, I knelt beside my bunk in the barracks on the naval base in Japan. I’d recently finished Hal Lindsay’s, The Late Great Planet Earth. His references to Jesus the Messiah in my Jewish Bible astounded me.
I was 22 at the time and had never opened a Bible, and certainly had never heard of the many prophecies in the Jewish Bible that referred to Messiah Jesus. Isaiah 7, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and Micah 5, are just a few that come immediately to mind. But there they were, pulsating on the pages as I read his book.
Still skeptical, I walked the two blocks to the base chapel and asked the Jewish chaplain if I could borrow a Bible. I took it back to my room to verify the texts Lindsay quoted were really in there.
They were.
Forty-eight years ago I could not have known the twists and turns my life would take, and how each twist and turn would lead me ultimately to where I am today on December 25, 2020. But it all began as I knelt by my bunk, the Holy Spirit, having shown me through my Jewish Bible the truth about sin and judgment, but also about mercy and forgiveness, I stared at the clouds beyond my window and said to God, “I believe Jesus is the Messiah.”
(continued on part two)
Part two of two:
Six words. But unspoken in those six words, yet resolute in my heart as I spoke them, was my promise to God of my commitment to Him.
I didn’t know the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola at the time – but I meant every syllable:
"Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more. Amen."
Have I failed Him in those 48 years? Many times. Has God forgiven me, reconciled me, redirected me? Every time I confessed and repented of my sin. Every time.
Forty-eight years. Over and over and again and again I have fallen to my knees and re-committed myself to my God and Savior.
But the point of this story is NOT about me. It’s about you.
You were brought into the Church as a baby through your baptism. But as an adult, how long has it been since you said to God something like St. Ignatius’ prayer?
Today is Christmas. If you’ve never prayed a prayer like that, why not do it now? If you’ve done it many times, why not do it again? What better gift this Christmas could you give to yourself, your family, your community . . . And to God?
Remember kids:
"[Microsoft] GitHub has the right to suspend or terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately. GitHub reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time."
https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/site-policy/github-terms-of-service
Also, can we make a point of always calling it Microsoft #GitHub from now on please? Thanks.
@stefan Salve, Stephanus!
@snowdusk Wasabi request: I Ran by Flock of Seagulls, please
Wrote my first variadic function in #plan9 C, added symmetry and extrude functions. Making little houses like this one is super simple.
The symmetry has an edge offset bug, but I'm trying to figure that one out, see the diagonal? not supposed to be there.
@papa puppy looks cool.
where most people just need to access a web browser, almost any linux distribution will work for them...as long as the hardware works for them 'out of the box'.
you don't want a person's first experience of linux to be dealing with modprobe and other driver garbage.
so if they can flash a USB drive, they can try almost any distro risk free to see if it detects hardware, and see the interface.
Wait? Everything in #plan9 is a file? Like, I just clone a connection “directory” and write “connect 127.0.0.1!8000” to /net/tcp/0 and that’s a TCP connection? Holy smokes!
@papa I think Kubuntu with KDE window manager (the style of interface) is a pretty friendly one.
ubuntu with gnome window manager is good too.
the best part of these 'basic' ones is there are so many resources online for when you need help.
i tried others like Tails (too specific in purpose), Qubes (too difficult), Manjaro (very different than ubuntu) but I like the look and feel of KDE the best.
Others have suggested Mint and Elementary (Mac like interface) too.
question
gotten my wife into privacy and security more and more...
-got her to run blockada on her phone
-we now use Conversations running on my Yunohost XMPP server for our phone communication
omg guys, she even asked me how to use Linux and i showed her. she's going to try using linux on her work laptop. i made it dual-boot for her.
crossing my fingers and hope it goes well for her.
Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1
Image Credit: NASA, Voyager 1, JPL, Caltech; Processing & License: Alexis Tranchandon / Solaris
Programmer
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Father
US expatriate in Japan
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Recovering politics junkie