Proverbs 11 (Part 2)

Posted on May 21, 2015 by ehurst

16. A gracious woman keeps honor, and the strong keep riches. This one is a little ambiguous and often mistranslated. The image is not a contrast between men and women, but a woman who either acts like a lady or tries to compete with men. A woman who lives consistently with God’s revelation about gender roles will “feed what should be fat” — she’ll make life worth living. If she tries to act more like a plundering soldier, she might have money, but who wants to go home to her?

17. The merciful man does good to his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh. This flips the previous proverb over to the man’s role. This builds on the image of conforming to holiness as pulling yourself up into the higher realm of moral consideration, and being able to see what God intended in Creation. Your life is consistent with reality itself in the most subtle ways, as well as the more obvious pieties. Such a man is merciful, mindful of human frailty because he sees his own failures with full clarity. Harsh and demanding men destroy themselves, pushing far away from how reality actually works. It’s a very unhealthy existence.

18. The wicked makes a deceitful wage; but one sowing righteousness has a sure reward. Fundamental to the definition of good morals is living with your heart supervising your mind. The heart in Hebrew culture was the place where God speaks. To live by human talents alone is calling God a liar; it is wickedness defined. God is the ultimate master of wages, and pays according to how your heart belongs to Him.

19. So righteousness tends to life; but one pursuing evil, it is to his own death. English translators often spoil things by adding words they imagine are implied; forget the “tends” here. Good moral character simply lives; it is life defined. There’s nothing to chase after because the truth is right there in front of you. Rest in God and trust Him to show you. If you feel like you have to work all that hard and chase the truth down, you won’t find it. You’ll find death in the broadest meaning.

20. They who are of a perverse heart are hateful to the LORD, but the upright in the way are His delight. To whatever your heart is committed, that will you do. If by your mind you interfere with the proper functioning of the moral intelligence in your heart, you will pervert your commitments. Those who build commitments consistent with God’s revealed purpose will let you stand firmly in His favor.

21. Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be innocent; but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. More subtlety that escapes translation, we see the image of worldly men who ignore revelation joining hands like an army intending to stand against the truth. As with the Tower of Babel, they expect to build their own version of truth by their human abilities. But when the wrath of God comes, their fruit will be picked clean. They’ll have nothing to show for it. For those who embrace revelation, their fruit — as the source of seeds — will be saved in God’s pantry.

22. Like a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a beautiful woman who turns aside discretion. Keep in mind that pigs were ritually unclean, detestable animals driven out into the wilderness. They had to hide out along the banks of wet places to survive in Israel. Who can bear the thought if getting close enough to one to fit it with any kind of animal control device, much less one made of gold? This shocking waste is just about what we might think when we encounter a woman who looks ravishing and has no sense of moral beauty to match.

23. The desire of the righteous is only good; the hope of the wicked is wrath. In Hebrew, the words for “desire” and “hope” here are conceptually very close. Both indicate a form of attachment. However, in the odd manner of terse Hebrew, it’s not meant to suggest that wicked people actually hope for wrath, but that the object of their affection guarantees wrath.

24. There is one who scatters and yet increases; but one who withholds just due comes only to poverty. This is a typical paradox. Within a covenant community, those who freely distribute whatever God has given them only make room for Him to give more. There’s nothing wrong with holding back things God says are reserved for some other purpose, but to be a tightwad guarantees God cannot give you more. Mercy and grace are like muscles that grow with use.

25. The soul who gives freely shall be made fat; and he who waters shall also be watered himself. Almost a repetition of the previous verse.

26. He who withholds grain, the people shall curse him; but blessing is on the head of him who sells. This extends the idea in the previous two verses. God gives material wealth so that you can experience the joy of sharing. Again, the context is a covenant community where everyone is family.

27. He who carefully seeks good gets favor; but he who seeks mischief, it shall come to him. The image here is someone who gets up early to pursue what’s just and right in God’s Creation. This is not a contradiction to verse 19 above, but another way of looking at the same thing. If you seriously God’s command to seek social stability (“good”), you should expect favor in general. This is contrasted with someone whose habits lead away from social stability; God will make sure their lives are unstable.

28. He who trusts in his riches shall fall; but the righteous shall blossom like a branch. It’s the contrast between spring and fall seasons. If material wealth is your god, then your life is autumnal in the worst sense of cold and dry, brown and drab. Those who place a high value in diving justice, even at the cost of material wealth, are living in eternal spring, always renewing and rejoicing.

29. He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind; and the fool shall be servant to the wise in heart. What will you inherit? This is all about family loyalty, a prime virtue in Scripture. In this case, making trouble means creating a moral disturbance. Wait until you are in charge to demand changes or you won’t have anything to inherit. You’ll end up a poor starving wretch, serving someone who did wait their turn.

30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he who wins souls is wise. The subtle Hebrew context here has nothing to do with the sales-pitch evangelism of modern Western church growth tactics. That can be faked entirely. The fundamental image here is more the focus of your life as a whole, the sense of what drives you in all things. We are building Life with a capital “L” — seeking to tie our existence here with Eternity. If your ambition is the souls of people, then your harvest is rich, indeed.

31. Behold, the righteous shall be rewarded in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner. There is a forceful assertion here in the first line. We all know that a proper moral focus is otherworldly, but it is also the most practical approach because it is consistent with how the universe operates. However much good you can have in this life is found on that path. How much more so the bad that comes to the wicked, because whatever they gain in this life is all they have.

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Proverbs 11 (Part 1)

Posted on May 20, 2015 by ehurst

(This chapter in Proverbs is a little long with my commentary, so I won’t burden you with more than the first half. We’ll cover the second half later.)

We begin to see a more frequent grouping of proverbs by common themes.

1. False balances are hateful to the LORD; but a just weight is His delight. While the literal meaning is obvious, the symbolic meaning is the same as in the West. Justice itself in the broadest sense is represented as measuring against a consistent standard. People who consistently measure things against the moral character of God will find His favor.

2. Pride comes, then shame comes; but with the lowly is wisdom. This continues the theme of the previous verse. Arrogant presumption is not the same as confidence; it is overconfidence, a lack of proportion. People might not see the difference at first, but the longer term results will show what God favors. Not so much in worldly results, but in how the heart can detect moral confusion by the actions of the arrogant. Those who don’t take themselves so seriously are less likely to lock themselves into an untenable position.

3. The integrity of the upright shall guide them; but the crookedness of traitors shall destroy them. A bit of punning here that doesn’t translate well, this proverb contrasts the image of one who is never bothers to deceive or hide things against that of someone who is always sneaking around and trying to take advantage of others. The central element is trust that arises not from mere simplicity, but of carefully structured behavior that always makes plain what you should expect.

4. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. The imagery is hard to translate. The image is not wealth itself, but wealth that one did not work hard to attain. Wealth that comes too easily robs one of moral character. It won’t matter what you have when you face God’s wrath, but whether His moral justice owns you.

5. The righteousness of the perfect shall make his way right, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. Life is likened to a journey. The word translated “perfect” indicates “what you ought to be.” A proper moral consciousness and living from the heart will make hazards obvious and easy to avoid. Moral weakness will make you stumble.

6. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but deceivers shall be taken in lust. The primary image is what you allow to control your decisions. What grabs you? Good moral character will snatch you away from harm, but moral confusion will drag you down into harm.

7. When a wicked man dies, his hope shall perish; and the hope of evil ones shall be lost. Death in Hebrew culture was a symbol for anything that threatened or shook your life around; we might say a rough ride. The first word translated “hope” is the image of commitment, something on which one depends, rather like a seatbelt. The second “hope” is the image of what one waits for, a cause for patient endurance. Without moral character, you’ll set your hopes on things that cannot possibly come.

8. The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked comes in his place. This restates the previous verse in different terms. To give the flavor of the Hebrew words, here we see that moral wisdom will pull a man out of a tight spot. Meanwhile, silencing your heart and living by lesser human reasoning will let you inherit his place in that tight spot.

9. A hypocrite corrupts his neighbor with his mouth; but through knowledge the just shall be delivered. The Hebrew here asks us to picture someone who invades your social gatherings without bothering to wash his clothes or even bathe, yet pretends that he fits right in. He’s a windbag with halitosis that could kill an ox. Your only defense is skillfully avoiding this beast.

10. When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices; and when the wicked are destroyed, there is singing. On the one hand, we know the Hebrew mythos celebrated the simple life in tents. However, a vivid community life often resulted in building some few permanent structures, and it required serious skill and engineering wisdom to build in that rocky, hilly terrain. Thus, the image of a city is something with justified multi-generation investment for the good of the people. It is this long-term view where one expects to see God bless the righteous and punish the wicked. A city worth living in will tend to celebrate those long-term outcomes.

11. By the blessing of the upright the city is lifted up, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. This extends the thought in the previous proverb. The blessing of any one morally upright person is a benefit to everyone in the community, but the wretched chatter of a morally filthy windbag will knock things down.

12. One despising his friend lacks heart, but a man of understanding remains silent. This is a forceful assertion that the heart is the seat of moral discernment. If you do not subject your mind to your heart, then you simply are not really alive. A primary symptom of a dead heart is an untamed mouth. An active heart of wisdom tends to make you talk less. This symbolizes the high value of contemplation in Hebrew culture.

13. One going with slander is a revealer of secrets, but the faithful of spirit keeps the matter hidden. We are presented with the image of a gossiper who invests some energy and effort in keeping track of everyone’s private business, not by going to the source, but gathering worthless scraps of false impressions. It constitutes verbal violence, ripping someone else’s clothes off in public for the sake of perverse entertainment. This contrasts with someone who genuinely cares and keeps their mouths shut.

14. Where there is no wisdom, the people fall; but in the multitude of wise men there is safety. Wisdom is depicted as ropes that bind things together tightly. The ideal community is where there are plenty of people who live by their hearts filled with good moral discernment. The implication is that moral education is more precious than just about any other investment you can make for the future of your nation.

15. He who is surety for a stranger shall be ruined; and he who hates suretyship is safe. This is another case of losing much in translation. It’s not considered a loan if you invest in the dreams of family member; it’s an investment of love and trust even if the money is lost. Investing in the business of someone outside your community is worse than gambling. Our Western concepts of contract and investment are torn to shreds here as violating God’s moral law.

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Published: More Debian 8 for Beginners

Posted on May 19, 2015 by ehurst

Cover art for More Debian 8 for Beginners

Cover for second Debian book

I used a different computer to work on this one. That was painful. First of all, the process by LibreOffice for opening a Word Doc often corrupts some of the detailed formatting. Be careful if you do that. For my uses, we won’t be doing that again, except to convert the text to the Open Document format and converting to PDF. I ended up having to nuke the formatting for the whole freaking book, and then start over with all the formatting details. Something kept inserting line numbering in the headers and default indents that are simply wrong for Smashwords book formatting.

At any rate, it’s looking nice now in the ebook format so you can get your free copy of More Debian 8 for Beginners here.

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An Itch in the Moral Consciousness

Posted on May 19, 2015 by ehurst

The Cross was Christ’s greatest victory.

I don’t need to dramatize the human suffering of Our Lord; God save us from people who gild the lily. But I wonder how much it cost Him to show compassion to Pilate? In the midst of dying, He called for the Father to forgive them. But He also said, “Greater works than these shall you do” (John 14:12). Don’t tell me that loving your enemies isn’t one of the greatest miracles of all. That miracle is not outside the boundaries of what He wants for you.

What do you make of the story about the WW2 correspondence from a doctor who helped “liberate” one of the Nazi prison camps? Our culture is crazy in its binary obsession, that things must be either A or not-A. That’s okay if you are playing with rocks, but it won’t work with the human soul. So this man sworn to the Hippocratic Oath relished the torture and plundering of his former enemies. And his life was afterward filled with more contradictions. Whatever else that man was, he was an average Westerner.

But the story is propaganda. On the one hand, the author grudgingly admits that war can make you do crazy things. On the other hand, the doctrinal spite against some long dead enemy must be justified at all costs. “Gotta keep your eye on those Germans.” Our troops were just human, but the other side was demonic and evil. And may the approved deity forbid that anyone should ever question the orthodoxy of the Sacred Holocaust, nor permit anyone else to claim that they faced their own holocaust, lest it somehow diminish the mighty god to which they bow down. That anesthesiologist certainly believed what he was told.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: I don’t dispute how awful it was to be Jewish in Nazi Germany. But nobody wants to hear about how awful it was to be German in the Post-WW1 Europe when everyone was trying to exterminate that nation. Even the much-loved Eisenhower was ready to slaughter every German living on the earth with bitter hateful glee. We cannot honor one truth by lying about everything else. The Allies were no more just and compassionate with their enemies than were the Germans to theirs. Maybe less so. I think the Defenders of the Sacred Holocaust are more rabid than Muslims who rise up against an insult on the Prophet.

Context is everything.

During my service as a Military Policeman, it was impossible that we didn’t encounter federal agents chasing some investigation. Those guys are hideously compartmentalized. On the one hand they often exhibited the most perverted sense of humor I’ve ever seen. It was damned nasty at times. On the other hand, they have zero sense of humor about something they encounter on the hunt for evidence. It’s bad enough we deal all day long with people who don’t quite understand the subtleties of sarcasm, but the feds must have taken advanced courses in how to be stupid. Not just hiding their own wit from their conscious minds, but they tend to be egregiously, hatefully stupid. Pull stuff out of context? It’s obligatory for them.

So we have wild accusations that some fellow named Chris Roberts commandeered an airliner and almost caused it to crash. He openly admits he did something like that, but it was in a computer simulation. Roberts is not a mass murderer, nor is he some kind of obsessed hacker willing to slaughter thousands because he can’t think beyond the thrill of cracking into a computer system. No, he spent the last few years warning everyone who was supposed to be responsible for fixing the problem that aircraft were wide open to such hacking. They paid no attention at all. So when he tried to force them to pay attention, they tried to arrest him.

And just who is the real threat to our safety when flying? Just about everyone officially charged with our safety — the aircraft manufacturers, the avionics and software makers, the NTSB and all the other alphabet soups, including the TSA who let him on the airplane. His restraint and care is exemplary. Whatever it was he did to test his claims in a real-world situation was so insignificant that the pilots never noticed.

Unlike Luke Rudkowski and John McAfee, I’m not going to insist you agitate for change or for realistic treatment of Roberts for his efforts to save our lives. What I ask is much simpler, well within your reach. Exercise compassion. It’s like a muscle, but without the inherent limits of flesh. When you use it, you let it use you, and it grows bigger than you. That’s what this business of “love your enemies” is all about. There are plenty of Herods in your life, for whom it’s too late and there’s not much you can do. Let God sort your Herods out, as Christ did while under arrest. Talk compassion to those who can hear it, as He did with Pilate.

Pilate performed his duty, but you can bet he was changed after that. While we would surely rejoice at manifestations of redemption, we aren’t really that concerned with real-world change. Jesus still went to the Cross, in part because it was a political necessity for the folks involved. God uses human politics for divine necessities that the people involved could never comprehend. Most of the world serves God unknowingly and unwillingly.

By contrast, we are unwillingly part of this world, consciously belonging to another realm of existence that humanity cannot know. We have to participate in His redemption willfully. This world will pass away, but His compassion lives eternally. We don’t join political organizations as if it really mattered. We aren’t that kind of change.

Take up your cross.

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Another Mission, Method and Means Comment

Posted on May 18, 2015 by ehurst

I wrote in my private journal:

There is a big difference between making Open Source your religion, Linux your sect, and the computer your church versus using these things as important tools in your religion. I call my religion “Kiln of the Soul” but it seems my heart demands that Debian specifically, and Linux in general, play a very important part in what I do as the means to opening the door to the gospel.

There was a time when I was trapped in the common mindset of the Linux fanboy. It included a lot of work in FreeBSD, but that was just another flavor as far as I was concerned. At some point I grew sick of the cultic madness and walked away from the whole thing. Once I was free of the weirdness, the Lord called me to bring back the use of Linux as merely the best tool for what lies ahead. I’m not even really sure what it is that lies ahead, but I’m determined to obey.

So you should expect to see more frequent posts about computers for a while because this is the current focus of where the Spirit is working in my life.

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Excerpt from “More Debian 8 for Beginners”

Posted on May 18, 2015 by ehurst

(This is a draft for one of the chapters.)

Networking with Windows

It’s rather common for computers to share Internet access from within the same living quarters or an office network. If your Debian box is connected to such a network, chances are you share that connection through a machine or device that is, in part at least, what we call a network switch. For example, a typical home router is also a switch, allowing several computers to connect. The computers connected to this switch or router constitute a Local Area Network (LAN). This generally includes any computers connected via wifi to the same switch/router. The point is that you have one device providing all the others with an internal network system, handing out internal IP addresses and so forth.

One of those services typically running on Windows that most people never use and don’t know about is Server Messenger Bus (SMB). Linux knows how to use this protocol, but we call it Samba. In fact, Linux machines can run this service, too, but for now, we’ll focus on using the Samba server already running on Windows machines. That is, you can use your Debian computer to connect to the Windows SMB service with just a little effort, and log into a Windows machine to access the files and maybe even the printer.

This won’t work from Debian by default. We need to add a couple of packages, which will pull in a few dependencies:

gvfs-backends
fusesmb

Once you have this, you can open up Thunar using the “Home” icon on your desktop. If you have the left pane displaying links, you’ll see an icon labeled “Browse Network.” Click on that and after a second or two you should see a list with at least one item: “Windows Network.” However, if Debian can identify any of the systems on that network, it will list them separately. In Linux Land, we refer to that as the “host name;” whatever it was the person installing decided to name their Windows box. If you click on that, you will probably be asked to log in, so you’ll need an account there with a user name and password.

Once you get past that, you’ll be presented with a list of places you are allowed to browse. You can figure it out from there, but files you are likely to want are under the “User” folder, then in either Public or some account folders. Keep poking around to find what you need. You should have permission to copy or move files between the two systems, and delete or edit files right on the Windows “server” itself.

If you intend using any printers connected to the Windows computer, you’ll need to do the research and find out how to configure Windows to assign share names to the printers. Essentially you dig into the printer properties and select to share it, when you’ll be given a chance to assign a share name. Keep it simple but unique to that printer.

Do the research and find out if that printer is supported by the printer system that runs on Debian (CUPS). Debian 8 comes with a fairly recent list already installed (unless you de-selected the print server during installation). The official list for CUPS itself is here. If Debian doesn’t have the particular driver installed, you can download the latest version from the Open Printer website; look for “directly download PPD” from the page that displays when you select a specific printer model. Then, at the point where you select your driver in the printer setup on Debian, simply opt to load the PPD from wherever you downloaded it.

Next, install two more packages in Debian:

smbclient
cifs-utils

These two will bring in a load of dependencies that mostly allow you to synchronize Windows type permissions on your Debian system. Now, in your main menu, go to System > Print Settings. Select to add a printer, where you’ll need to give your root password. This will open a dialog that includes a left pane showing an option for network printing. Click on this to open a list and at the bottom should appear something about Windows and Samba. Click this to open a new configuration window where you need to fill in the host name of the Windows computer and a user account login details. It should detect one or more printers, whatever is configured for sharing. The rest should be pretty obvious, but the tricky part is selecting the proper driver, as previously noted.

If you simply cannot make this work, there’s no shame in copying files for printing to the Windows computer and printing them from there. We’ve already set up file sharing access. Frankly, Windows drivers tend to work better than CUPS drivers do because the manufacturers make their money on the Windows version.

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Outline of “More Debian 8”

Posted on May 17, 2015 by ehurst

I’ve gotten this much on the second volume of my Debian 8 book:

1. Firewalling and a few other little extras — ntpdate (Internet clock sync), units (converting measurable units), how to use manual pages (manpages) and PySolFC with other games.

2. WINE — The software package that allows some Windows software to run natively on Linux. It’s different for 32-bit and 64-bit Debian, so I cover the difficulties.

3. VMs — Install and configure the Virtual Box virtual machine, and installing Windows on it. The best of both worlds because you can run all Windows software, not just a select few programs. Meanwhile, you get to keep the security of Linux running on the actual hardware.

4. Samba client — How to network with Windows computers on your LAN, logging into the Winbox because it runs the SMB service. I also cover how to connect to a shared computer on a Winbox.

5. File formats — The basic differences between the various file formats between Windows and Linux, and how to trade between them without difficulty.

6. Lynx — The plain text browser, how to configure and begin using it. In this chapter I also mention how to use the ‘alias’ command because it’s part of configuring Lynx.

Can anybody think of anything else a Debian beginner might need to know?

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Linux Distros

Posted on May 17, 2015 by ehurst

In response to a direct request, I will outline the Linux distros that I tolerate and why. Keep in mind that I think all operating systems suck, but some are more tolerable than others. The entire question is based on the person tolerating. I’m not a fan of any of them.

First, let me introduce my usage. I don’t care much for common computer entertainments. I do play a few puzzle and card games, and I do listen to worship music, along with a few secular favorites from younger days. Mostly I read, research and write. I spend a lot of my surfing time on the Net using a plain text browser to avoid visual clutter around the information I seek. I use a graphical browser when convenience matters or when the information is by nature visual and it’s worth the trouble to me. I also do my own book covers, so I chase down free-to-use images to modify and paste over it with titles and such. I’ve done some book covers and original artwork for other folks, too. By the way, I prefer to use laptops.

Second, I’ve done some work with clients in my computer tech support ministry testing how they do or don’t tolerate the difference between Windows and Linux, and what kinds of things they find tolerable. In this context, and in my own personal use, I’ve tested a lot of Linux distros that I don’t like and won’t be addressing those here. That leaves us with three that I can recommend to other people.

Please don’t ask me why I didn’t include your favorite if you have one. I’ve had enough of debates and disputes from fanboys when I somehow insult their current OS deity.

There are three primary use patterns I’ve encountered.

1. The common home user: For those who have the least time and attention to devote to computers in the first place, Kubuntu is the shortest path to Linux (thus, the title to the Kubuntu book I published). It has its own weaknesses, and I don’t care to use it much personally. However, it is the one most Windows refugees tolerate best because it demands less change in their usage habits. It requires less from the user because it automates a lot of tasks. I wrote the book to cover what I believe are the few things most users might not figure out on their own. I charge a small price for my book on this, but you can find drafts of the individual chapters posted on this blog.

2. The typical home office or business user: If you have more time to devote to the migration process and need something more business-like, CentOS is the way to go. The free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), it is the most reliable Linux distro I’ve used, and the release cycle is very long. Once you get it working your way, you can keep it for a very long time as is and the people behind it will support it with fixes and such. If you have money and need more accountability, use the commercial version, Red Hat. All software companies suck because they can’t stay in business and please everybody, but Red Hat is more responsive than some others. But if you have the interest and time to bother with learning it yourself, CentOS is the same software without commercial tech support. It’s a little tougher to get the entertainment stuff working, but it can be done.

The current version, CentOS 7, is pure 64-bit. If you have older hardware that can’t run 64-bit, you’ll need CentOS 6 — more work and fewer options because it’s a bit older. On CentOS 7, I cannot imagine a Windows user migrating easily to the GNOME desktop, so I recommend you install KDE. On CentOS 6, the default GNOME desktop is an older version that’s less difficult to grasp. In either case, your options are constrained just a bit on just about everything, but that’s where safety and stability are found.

3. The computer hobbyist: The most powerful and versatile Linux distro is Debian. It lies behind Kubuntu but requires a lot more from the user. It also does way more different kinds of things and invites you to explore in ways the other two cannot. If there is something you want that Debian doesn’t already provide, chances are very good you can build it yourself more easily on Debian than other distros because Debian tends to be generic Linux. Thus, if you really need to have it your way, chances are Debian will bring you closest to what you want. It’s more work because there are more options. It also tends to run on more different kinds of hardware than just about anything else.

Other stuff that I’ve tried disappointed me in various ways, and some was of no interest in the first place. I’m not that kind of hobbyist and I’m by no means a fanboy of any of them. Again, this is not meant as a sales pitch, nor an invitation to compare your favorites with mine. I refuse to debate any presumed objective superiority of any of them because there is no such thing. The user is the measure of all things, despite the fact most users want things they cannot and should not have. The whole point is to get them as close as possible, because this is not the venue for saving people from themselves. I’m pretty agnostic about how people use their computers, and the focus of my computer ministry is helping you get whatever it is you want.

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Psalm 50

Posted on May 16, 2015 by ehurst

If we take Asaph as the name of the man known to lead the Temple musicians, then he must have also been a prophet of some sort, for his psalms typically deal with the judgment of God.

Were Jehovah like any earthly ruler, He could not really know what was in the hearts of men. But He is God, and knows each soul better than it knows itself. His Covenant with Israel is a covenant of hearts bound to a deity, not bodies bound to a political throne. When He comes, you cannot hide by departing His jurisdiction. His domain is all Creation, far greater than our entire universe. There is no place His searching does not touch.

We begin with established titles and names: El, Elohim and Jehovah. There’s no mistaking who we are talking about here. Some translations are more picturesque about His divine summons — the whole earth from the sunrise to the sunset. From the glorious city of His Temple, He comes forth to reveal His moral character. Revelation is an act that condemns sin, even as it opens the door to repentance, but His stormy wrath will consume sin. No part of Creation is exempt from His judgment, not even Heaven. When God holds court, no living thing is excused from appearing. At some point in this ceremony, He calls out His covenant people. The Heavens themselves declare His justice, for He defines the meaning of the word.

He comes to judge His own people first, those who should know His justice best. Israel stands condemned, accused by Justice Himself. Obedience to the rituals is not the issue here. Why do His people act as if He had some physical need for sacrificial animals as food? Do they not know that He owns all Creation, not merely whatever they choose to bring Him? Whatever God wants is His without bothering to notify anyone, for to no living being is He accountable, but all are accountable to Him.

And what does He really want from us? Genuine gratitude is the ultimate pleasing sacrifice. Obedience from the heart is His just due. The Covenant is an agreement between two parties; do what you have committed yourself to do. Don’t pray to anyone else, but call on Jehovah and He will answer. Then we will glorify Him.

He has a belly full of people who profess His Word, even presuming to teach it, but whose hearts are not open to Him. This is hypocrisy defined, because they secretly wish to get in on the thief’s plunder. Their best friends are adulterers. With that same mouth they deceive and prey on others. And because God did not roar from the Heavens, as if they were petulant children who obey only when the lash is hanging over their heads, they decided that He was as venal as they.

God’s scale of time is not ours; it is we who must conform to His outlook. When the fruit of moral failure is ripe in His mind, then He acts. Contemplate these things while they are mere words of warning in a psalm, not when you are called to account. You cannot imagine what God’s wrath is like. Adore Him now sincerely while He considers His actions, for His power to bless is waiting on you.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Just a Nutcase

Posted on May 15, 2015 by ehurst

So here’s what I see coming for Windows users: Windows 10 will be a buy-once-update-forever kind of thing. You won’t get much choice on updates and feature changes. If you have it, you have to accept anything MS wants to do to it. You won’t own it, only rent it. For awhile, at least, you won’t be forced to upgrade from Win7 or Win8, but look for that to change.

On the other hand, if you really like some of the older versions of Windows and the software that ran on it, this is a good time to learn about virtual machine (VM) technology. Run Linux as the host machine for the Net and Windows in your VM to get the best of both worlds. I do it every day.

I’ve decided to add a second volume to my Debian book and introduce more advanced topics. It will be titled More Debian 8 for Beginners. Isn’t that so very imaginative? It’s where I’ll describe the easiest path to running a VM.

Keeping your sanity and control over your computers may get tough in the near future. Given that corporations have taken over the US government, don’t expect things to get any better.

The wrath of God on the US began some time ago, but many were not aware of it. So this should help get your attention on the matter. Given what we know about people in general, the resistance to migrating out of those areas is likely to include rioting and violence we can hardly imagine now. Unless somebody comes up with a massively cheap means of desalination, Californians won’t need to worry much about earthquakes, but desertification.

Meanwhile, we are still in a heavy rain pattern here in Oklahoma. We haven’t seen a renewed tornado threat since the first couple of days two weeks ago, but this stuff seems like some kind of endless monsoon. All of the reservoirs in the state are overflowing, and it’s much the same quite a ways north and south of here, from South Texas to South Dakota — most of the High Plains. That should reduce pressure on the Ogallala Aquifer somewhat. Still, should things turn dry here, the southern half of the Ogallala could just about disappear.

In colloquial terms, you might say God is engaging in some herd thinning here in the US. Food production will likely fall enough to bring us down to third world status. Oh, and there’s that business of the spreading bird flu in the Heartland requiring vast flocks of food animals to be culled.

I’ve read suggestions that the bird flu epidemic may not be entirely natural. At this point, it makes little difference. Even if you discover incontrovertible proof of culpability, it’s unlikely the real culprits will be held accountable. This is how empires collapse, and it won’t seem to us sudden at all. At some point there won’t be much to lose and folks will start going off like land mines. It won’t be like the preppers imagine, though; they ignore way too much good social science research into human behavior at large.

Every day, I overhear people still obsessing over the US Constitution. Too late, folks; get over it. So long as you maintain a religious doctrinaire commitment to what actually never was, a shining image of a vigorous Western republic, you won’t see clearly enough to recognize what’s coming. Preppers aren’t cynical enough and take themselves too seriously. Given that my first allegiance is to Christ, and I don’t take any human government seriously, you can bet I’ll salute whatever flag they offer.

I’m guessing that Western metropolitan areas will see riots soon enough over water, but just outside of the deep urban areas you should see a few communities organize to resist as a whole, and some will be a fair match for state and big city forces. However, the state governments in the Heartland are already stoutly resisting federal agencies and are less likely to face popular revolt. I suspect the Deep South will look like the Civil War all over again. But instead of fighting Yankees, they’ll be fighting each other. The rest of the country is a mixed bag and unpredictable to me. In the long run, I suspect the federal government will show itself too feeble and rigid to assert its policies. In other words, I expect the US to break up into regional states.

That’s barring, of course, things we peons haven’t seen that might be hiding in the shadows. The previous paragraph reflects simply the current visible trends. By the way, you should realize that recent riots over police misconduct were all staged. If you’ve been paying attention outside of the mainstream press, you realize that big money is behind igniting race wars. Don’t fall for it. I saw it coming back in the 1980s when police training changed radically, and several political coups were completed behind the scenes that forever changed the direction of politics here in the US. Up to that point, there was some hope of change in the system, but it died by 1990. It’s too complex to outline here.

I can tell you that the worst of it is frankly religious in nature. The most outlandish cults in America run the political machinery. They wear mainstream labels, but it’s all shockingly different behind the false front. Even if I wrote about it, the facts are so outlandish that no one would believe me except flakes and weirdos. Some major mainstream figures in evangelical circles, for example, are manifestations of the Antichrist, as it were. Not the mythical nonsense spewed by weirdos, but the real Spirit of Antichrist from Scripture animates a lot of big church activity.

Don’t mind me; I’m just a nutcase.

Posted in social sciences | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments