Christianity IS the Gospel

"In its conceptual representation of this theocentric arrangement for salvation, Christianity explains the necessity of grace in the following way. Human beings universally could have perceived clearly that God wants love to rule the world. Instead they have all rebelled against having a definitive communion of love with God. As a race and as individuals they could and should have perceived that the proper present and ultimate meaning of their life is to participate with God in a communion that opens solicitously to any other human being and embraces everyone who responds. Instead, human beings universally have willfully exchanged their God-given birthright - their finite freedom and their capacity to love - for bondage to the sin of self-will. This is the domino-effect fall that every human individual repeats, and it is enormously more serious than a person's merely falling short of the mark of moral aspiration. In choosing to live from the self for self, the radical reality of a person falls away from companionship with God. From this "original sin" or "fall" in each person's life originate all other sins, including personal moral defects and misdemeanors. One must understand this notion of every human person's original sin if one wants to understand Christianity's reasoning for the necessity of grace, because, according to Christianity, it is this sin that permanently estranges people from God. "Original sin" designates a person's fundamental commitment to be a self and to cherish and choose what pleases this self. It is a commitment that forms so subtly, on the basis of a decision that develops so early and deceptively, that a person cannot remember having ever experienced it as an actual option. Christian theology will not exculpate us even though we cannot remember choosing our selfish orientation. It will not permit us to say, "We were born this way and could not have been otherwise." The condition of being a self is one that each person brings about. Because it is a condition of being selfish, the human person is selfish whether it remains immobile or engages in activity. When one does express one's self, the expression is self-assertion and self-service. When a person's being is selfish, that personal being is selfish in itself, in its actions, and in its relations. It shuts out God and other humans from its being, and is indifferent to them except to use them for its self. Such a person whose being is selfish does not even want to be otherwise. The selfward orientation of human persons impairs their judgment, conscripts their will, and confuses their emotions so that they are unable to discern and despise their truly corrupted condition, or to initiate and effect a break away from it or even to imagine the possibility and satisfaction of selfish motivation. Since the selfish sinner is unwilling, and unable to become willing, to participate in a fellowship or communion of love with God and other human beings, why has God not abandoned humans completely? Christianity answers that since God is ultimate and humans are finally accountable to God, and since the reality of God is a love that wills to commune with humans right now as well as forever afterward, God is not indifferent to humanity's unwillingness to love and to be loved rather than to be a self. Because the reality of God in Christ is the love that aims for communion, that love cares whether humans accept or reject it. It would cease to be righteous selfless love if it relented in its will to create communion with those who have rejected it. Because it does continue to care infinitely for those who are unwilling to commune with it, God's love requires that humanity's estrangement be overcome and that a radical atonement be established between loving God and selfish humanity. How can God's love and humanity's selfishness be brought together in a communing fellowship? Christianity asserts that this is a question for God to answer, because humanity is in no disposition to renounce and sacrifice anything of its own. Therefore, the motivation, the will, and the resources to anote holy (loving) God and unholy (selfish) humanity are all on God's side. This situation, according to Christianity, constitutes the crisis point at which grace, the inexplicable extension of God's love, becomes necessary. It supplies the missing link between God's love and humanity's selfishness that is necessary for the salvation of humankind from the sinful, fallen condition. At the same time, Christian teaching maintains that the mere presence of God's love does not suffice to induce selfishness to yield itself to communion with God's love. The power of God's love has to be conducted in such a manner that it creates communion with selfish people while they are still being selfish. Christians are instructed to see God's love demonstrated in precisely that creative manner in Jesus Christ, and they refer to it as "the grace of God given in Jesus Christ." What they see in Jesus Christ and call grace is God's making a sacrifice that humans ought to have made but refused to make. Christianity announces that right here in human history - where humans ought to have sacrificed their selfishness to God - the love of God acted vicariously for humanity in Jesus Christ and sacrificed selfless love to selfish humanity. This grace, this vicarious action of God's love, has supplied the missing link, in Christianity's scheme of salvation, a link that has joined holy (loving) God and sinful (selfish) humans in a radical atonement: 'In Christ God was reconciling the world to God's reality, no longer holding humanity's transgressions against them . . . . Christ was innocent of sin, but for our sake God made him one with our sinfulness so that in him we might be made one with God's goodness' (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21). 'Christ died for us godless people . . . . Christ died for us while we were still sinners and in that act God demonstrates God's own love for us . . . We were enemies when God reconciled us through the death of his Son, but now that we are reconciled we shall be saved all the more by the life of his son (Romans 5:6, 8, 10). In this vicarious atonement with selfish humanity, God's love is believed to have compromised neither its own righteousness nor the righteousness it requires of human beings. Indeed, for Christianity, vicarious suffering and death demonstrate that God's love is righteous: It remains loving consistently and extends itself to others at literally any cost to itself - exactly the opposite of what selfishness does. It demonstrates also that the righteousness which God wants from every human being is also vicarious love. 'The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that since one man has died for all humans, then every human being ought to be dead, but he died for all so that living humans should no longer live selfishly, but for him who died and was raised to life for them' (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). Christians perceive that by yielding to human selfishness the love of God took a risk that has been realized: that humans would scorn, injure, and try to exterminate it, that yielding thus would involve great waste of love. There is, however, a far more decisive consideration for the dignity and integrity of God's love than this realized risk. By sacrificing itself, this love of God created a communion and a community within which selfish humans have an assured possibility of a regeneration that will enable them to become righteous lovers of others and of God. This provision for human regeneration through the communion of a loving God and selfish humanity, in the community of the church, is a realistic, not facile, treatment of sin. The grace that, according to Christianity, accomplishes this regeneration is an expensive, not cheap, grace. By its vicarious sacrifice in Jesus Christ the grace of God's love shows itself to be qualitatively other than human reality. Rather this otherness does not constitute an elusiveness of inaccessibility. The elusiveness of grace is the inexplicability of its given presence in Jesus Christ and his church." A World Theology - The Central Spiritual Reality of Humankind by N. Ross and Edmund F. Perry

The Gospel Hermeneutic

The Gospel is the hermeneutical key to all of Scripture. Our knowledge of God should revolve and possess its basis upon the Gospel. T.F. Torrance says it this way:

“This does not mean that all our knowledge of God can be reduced to Christology, but that, as there is only one Mediator between God and man, who is himself both God and Man, and only one revelation of God in which he himself is its actual content, all authentic knowledge of God is derived and understood in accordance with the incarnate reality of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ, and is formulated in doctrinal coherence with Christology. That is to say, doctrinal statements about God are possible and true only when Christologically grounded” (The Christian Doctrine of God, p. 17).

Privacy concerns mount over retail use of RFID technology

RFID - The next big thing in the AutoID industry, but some major hurdles need to be overtaken first. "Park Ridge, Ill. - Engineers and consumer advocates are pushing suppliers and corporate retailers to take a harder look at privacy concerns related to the use of radio frequency identification technology. Noting that such issues could undermine RFID's enormous potential, engineers at a recent RFID Privacy Workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called for implementation of "powerful and flexible privacy mechanisms." ... ... calls for high-tech intervention have put backers of RFID technology on the defensive, as consumer groups and the media press for safeguards. ..." The RFID revolution will affect the consumer in one form or fashion - not even related to the security issues. I'm talking about the cost of the RFID tag. The cost of RFID tags will funnel into higher cost of the goods to which the tags are attached - at least at first - until the cost of tags goes down. The main type of tags that will have the most affect (b/c Walmart & the US Defense Dept are using them) is the "868-956Mhz" range tags. Now. If only Smart cards get more widely used. For some reason their adoption is slow going.

Poetry.com

If you like writing poetry, you might want to check out Poetry.com. I have a few things up there. Some decent; other stuff not so.... The neat thing is you have a chance to win $$ :) I had one piece that kept coming up in their discussions. I got tons of mail for it, but I did not win any $$. I'd rather win the $$ than recognition :) hehe Anyway, I digress. Go enjoy it. It's a good site AND you can possibly win $$.!!!

Lyrics

Stacie Orrico's Don't Look At Me has a good message. I know it jams out quite a bit, but the lyrical emphasis is good. The point is we (as humans) get caught up in lifting up man as a hero (at times rightfully so, but other times not so deserving) when we need to lift our Savior up instead. "Don't look at me if you're looking for perfection Don't look at me I will only let you down I'll do my best to point you in the right directon But don't look at me No, no, no Don't look at me, look at Him Sometimes I have a fear That you will see a mirror And get the thought that it's the main attraction But all that you detect Is just what I reflect Of the object of my own affection I'll lead you to the One I found He'll give you everything you need Don't look at me if you're looking for perfection Don't look at me I will only let you down I'll do my best to point you in the right direction But dont' look at me No, no, no Dont' look at me, look at Him It's understandable to want a hero But people can't meet all your expectations Still some can teach you things about the love He brings Just know the source of life is in the Savior I'll lead you to the One I found He'll give you everything you need Don't look at me if you're looking for perfection Don't look at me I will only let you down I'll do my best to point you in the right direction But don't look at me No,no, no Don't look at me, look at Him He's the One who lived a perfect life He's the One who always gets it right He's the One and only guiding light, Ohh, yeah He is everthing you want to be He's the answer to your every need If you follow Him then you will se(e) He's like no other"

HP back on top of PC market

Hewlett-Packard overtook Dell to become the world's largest PC maker in the fourth quarter in a market that is both growing and growing more difficult. Want the full scoop? click on the above link.

Judge rules Microsoft infringed on Eolas patent

A Chicago federal judge on Wednesday upheld a $512 million patent verdict against Microsoft that could ultimately force major changes in many of the most common Internet software products. Judge James Zagel said he saw no reason to overturn an August jury verdict that said Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browsing software had infringed on patent rights held jointly by small developer Eolas Technologies and the University of California. As part of his decision, Zagel barred Microsoft from distributing versions of its Web software that include the potentially infringing technology. However, he immediately put that injunction on hold until an appeal has run its course. ... ... The Eolas patent covers technology used to call up separate applications, such as a media player or document viewer, within a Web page. ... ... Microsoft has said that it believes that the Eolas patent will ultimately be found invalid, either by the courts or by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ... ... "We remain confident that on appeal, when people hear this though, they will see that--as we claimed--the patent is not valid," Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellers said. "We don't think we violated anything even if it were valid." ... ... The software giant has 30 days to file a notice of appeal in the case. As part of his ruling, Zagel said Microsoft must pay more than $45 million in "prejudgment interest" for the infringement while the appeal is mounted." This one's self-explanatory. doh!

Agriculture epidemics may hold clues to Net viruses

In studying the effects of last summer's MSBlast worm, some security experts turned to an unlikely source in search of clues to the prevention of computer epidemics: plants. Their idea was inspired by parallels that scientists are drawing between the proliferation of computer viruses and the spread of agricultural catastrophes such as Dutch Elm Disease, which has devastated a small variety of American elms since crossing the Atlantic decades ago. Like Dutch Elm, MSBlast was a single foreign entity that infected extremely susceptible hosts of an entire population--in this case, of Windows computers. "People have brought over species that we didn't expect here, just like people have created viruses that Microsoft didn't expect to deal with," said Jeff Dukes, professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, who studies diversity and growth in ecological systems. "These introduced species have had a major impact on our forest and have knocked out entire species." Computer security experts see similarities between the way a disease can devastate agricultural crops and the way a virus can attack Internet infrastructure. The reliance on one type of technology, software or protocol has created digital "monocultures," a phrase borrowed from botany that refers to ecosystems vulnerable to disastrous harm from a single disease. ... ... Even scientists outside technology have expressed concern about the issue. In a letter to a publication called "Emerging Infectious Diseases," a journal of the federal Center for Disease Control, two microbiologists cited specific similarities in the nature of biological and computer viruses. "Biological viruses can mutate rapidly, create novel pathogenic and transmission routes, and develop antigenic variation to evade host immunity. In the computer world, worms exhibit similar behavior," wrote microbiologists Trudy M. Wassenaar and Martin J. Blaser." Are scientists just now figuring out there is a very close tie between biological & digital viri (the correct variant of the word virus when referring to more than one)? I think it is a good thing to have different software packages from different vendors on your machine - the main reason? If a virus hits, you have a greater chance that your whole system will not go down. If your PC's have software from one vendor (i.e. M$), there is a greater chance your whole system could go down b/c all the software packages are based on the same programming scheme - hence, same vulnerabilities throughout (also same security - gasp!). Just a thought.

Al Mohler

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world. He is a theologian and ordained minister, as well as an author, speaker and host of his own radio program Truth on the Line. On his weblog he posts an entry entitled: "The Case Against Homosexual Marriage" (link above). His entry is quite lengthy which is why I will summarize it for you by noting the highlights. "This is the (partial <- mine) text of Dr. Mohler's opening statement during a debate on homosexual marriage sponsored by The Louisville Forum, January 14, 2004. ..." "The question of homosexual marriage presents the American people with an inescapable moral challenge. The words homosexual and marriage are inherently contradictory. The very fact that these terms are in public conflict demonstrates the radical character of the social revolutionaries that now demand the legalization of homosexual marriage. For at least the last one hundred years, America has experienced an unprecedented season of social transformation. Now, this transformation has been extended to experimentation with the most basic institutions and cherished principles of our common life. A conversation about "homosexual marriage" is only possible if the concept of marriage is completely redefined and severed from its historic roots and organic meaning. Civilization requires the regulation of human sexuality and relationships. No society--ancient or modern--has survived by advocating a laissez faire approach to sex and sexual relationships. Every society, no matter how liberal, sanctions some sexual behaviors and proscribes others. Every society establishes some form of sexual norm. Pitirim Sorokin, the founder of sociology at Harvard University, pointed to the regulation of sexuality as the essential first mark of civilization. According to Sorokin, civilization is possible only when marriage is normative and sexual conduct is censured outside of the marital relationship. Furthermore, Sorokin traced the rise and fall of civilizations and concluded that the weakening of marriage was a first sign of civilizational collapse. ... ... Once individuals--especially males--are freed for sexual behavior outside of marriage, civilizational collapse becomes an inevitability. The weakening of marriage--even on heterosexual terms--has already brought a harvest of disaster to mothers and children abandoned in the name of sexual liberation. ..." This particular entry on his blog is insightful and very thought provoking. I suggest you read the entry to help you understand homosexuality and the sexual revolution is the bulldozer that is shaking the very foundation of our society.

Critical Condition

If you're like me (and most of you are), you don't watch Jeopardy. But I think it would have been neat to see Tom Walsh win it big on Jeopardy with a 7 game streak. (Remember, the 7 game limit has been raised this season. All past seasons were a limit of 5). It's interesting to read his account of what it was like to be on Jeopardy. "Well, all I can say is: I don't understand how it happened either. After the Jeopardy round, I was thinking, "I just won 6 games -- I can't be this bad, can I?" The buzzer is a fickle thing. I'd been through some hot streaks & some cold ones -- many of the hot ones coming at very opportune times -- but my futility for the first half of last night's game was incredible. Dave, & especially Meg, were just faster. But there's nothing you can do except hang in there & hope your luck changes in Double Jeopardy." It's an interesting read....

Opera 7 now for handhelds

"Sharp and Opera Software has announced that Opera is included on the new Sharp Zaurus SL-6000 handheld, the first embedded device to feature the new Opera 7 for embedded devices. Opera was also included in the SL-6000's predecessor, the SL-5500, for which Sharp and Opera received much praise." cool

Smart phones lose steam

"Mobile phone makers are reluctant to invest in smart phones or introduce new models, disappointed by slower-than-expected sales and weak positions on global markets. Major handset-telephone makers rolled out personal digital assistant phones last year but the result fell far short of expectations. ... ... LG Electronics Inc. also announced late last year that it developed a smart phone with a built-in camera sporting 1.1-million-pixel resolution. It priced the high-end model at 800,000 won. The device has 192 megabytes of memory and uses Microsoft's operating system for handheld computers. But the LG smart phone also was largely ignored by mainstream customers." An interesting article. If you want to read more, click the link above.