Larry Devich
Monday, May 01, 2006
Email readers
I am frustrated with my email reader. On the one hand I refuse to use "web based" readers like Yahoo or G-mail. I've been using Outlook for a while but it's sorting and filing system just sucks. I like Thunderbird, it sorts out the threads of conversations pretty well and stores them in a simple to use and easy to see "tree" format that I like. The problem with Thunderbird is that the attachments that other people send to me, often embedded in multiple forwards, will not open, nor will they allow me to save them to a folder and open them from there. It seems to be some sort of formatting problem. I used to use a program from Forte Inc. called Agent, but they "improved" it into incomprehensibility and I could not figure out how to use it after the last upgrade so I gave up on it. I've tried out a number of other programs but none of them are really what I want. I guess it's time to search and experiment again, maybe someone has come up with a new one that actually is both efficient and simple.
¶ 5/01/2006 06:08:00 PM 0 Comments
On reading the Word
I must confess that for the last week or so I have not kept up with my reading of the Word. For no reason I can pinpoint I simply stopped. Now, there is nothing "magical" about reading the Word of God every day. It's not some ritual I do to please God.
But there is something that happens within me when I read the Word that is good and when I neglect the Word and forget to pray, then it is not so good. Yesterday and today I have once again read God's Word and prayed to the Lord and have asked my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to forgive my neglect of His Word.
No, there is nothing magical about the habit of reading God's Word every day. No more magical than being nourished when you eat a healthy breakfast! We need to feed on the Word every day. In the same way we need to talk to our Father, and hear what he has to say to us, daily.
Related to that is the sacrament of Holy Communion, where we receive the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus! Imagine, we get to touch the very Son of God! He comes to us in the bread and the wine, really there within us, not just symbolically, but truly present in and under the elements we see with our eyes. What an incredible blessing that is, what a joy to be allowed to partake of our Lord's body and blood.
Which brings me to a passage from my reading of the Word this morning:
Psalm 102:25-27
25Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 26They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, 27but you are the same, and your years have no end.
I am not faithful to God, I cannot be faithful to God. My old Adam, my old sinful nature hates God and seeks to escape from God.
God is the faithful one, He is the one who remains faithful always and forever, He will never abandon us or leave us alone.
In baptism God has killed the old Adam, and placed His Spirit within us. He has made us a new creation. Our old man is drowned in baptism, but man he sure does know how to tread water! The old man is with us until we die. We Christians are simultaneously both sinner and saint. But when we have been raised up in a new body at the resurrection, the old Adam will not rise with us, we will be raised up perfect. Ah, now that is the hope we have and the joy I look forward to!
¶ 5/01/2006 04:49:00 AM 0 Comments
But there is something that happens within me when I read the Word that is good and when I neglect the Word and forget to pray, then it is not so good. Yesterday and today I have once again read God's Word and prayed to the Lord and have asked my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to forgive my neglect of His Word.
No, there is nothing magical about the habit of reading God's Word every day. No more magical than being nourished when you eat a healthy breakfast! We need to feed on the Word every day. In the same way we need to talk to our Father, and hear what he has to say to us, daily.
Related to that is the sacrament of Holy Communion, where we receive the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus! Imagine, we get to touch the very Son of God! He comes to us in the bread and the wine, really there within us, not just symbolically, but truly present in and under the elements we see with our eyes. What an incredible blessing that is, what a joy to be allowed to partake of our Lord's body and blood.
Which brings me to a passage from my reading of the Word this morning:
Psalm 102:25-27
25Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 26They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, 27but you are the same, and your years have no end.
I am not faithful to God, I cannot be faithful to God. My old Adam, my old sinful nature hates God and seeks to escape from God.
God is the faithful one, He is the one who remains faithful always and forever, He will never abandon us or leave us alone.
In baptism God has killed the old Adam, and placed His Spirit within us. He has made us a new creation. Our old man is drowned in baptism, but man he sure does know how to tread water! The old man is with us until we die. We Christians are simultaneously both sinner and saint. But when we have been raised up in a new body at the resurrection, the old Adam will not rise with us, we will be raised up perfect. Ah, now that is the hope we have and the joy I look forward to!
¶ 5/01/2006 04:49:00 AM 0 Comments
