SELF: Burying The Old Nature!

"Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry."

Colossians 3:5

I love to scour old cemeteries; the history and the intrigue manifested in grave markers is fascinating. While in Boston about 17 years ago I made it a point to visit the old cemetery above the harbor near North Church. What a treat.

D. Gene Strother tells of a visit to Evergreen Cemetery in Paris, Texas. He describes all the monuments that fascinated him … the shrines, the crypts, the old-west styles … one had a statue of Jesus in a pair of cowboy boots.

A common sight was the family plot, where there is a central monument, with the family name on all four sides, and family members spread out from the center.

On one drive through Evergreen, Strother said he noticed one tombstone of particular note … not for its beauty but rather for its simplicity … the occupant was identified simply as SELF. Every family, every home in the world, needs a family plot with a grave marker like this … a place to put SELF.

God knows unbelievers won’t do it on their own; He expects, however, the believer to do so. Every believer, every soul, that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ should have a place for self in his or her home!

[Adapted from a message by D. Gene Strother, Pulpit Helps, September 1995, p.1]

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion, Self

NATURE: Careless Code Recycling Causes Killer Kangaroos!

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."

Ephesians 5:1-2

It’s being reported that the reuse of old, object-oriented computer code has caused tactical stress for Australia's armed forces.

As virtual reality simulators assume larger roles in helicopter combat training, programmers have gone to great lengths to increase the realism of each scenario. This can include very real landscapes and wildlife (i.e., herds of kangaroos, since disturbed animals might reveal a helicopter's position), as in the case of the Northern Territory's “Operation Phoenix.”

The head of the Defense Science & Technology Organization's Land Operations/Simulation Division reportedly instructed program developers to model the local marsupials' movements and reactions to helicopters. To achieve certain efficiencies, programmers appropriated some code originally used to model infantry detachment reactions under attack conditions, changed the mapped icon from a soldier to a kangaroo, and increased the figures' speed of movement.

After release, some hotshot Aussie pilots, eager to demonstrate their flying skills for visiting American pilots, buzzed the virtual kangaroos in low-flight simulation. The kangaroos scattered as planned, and the visiting Yanks nodded appreciatively ... then did a double-take as the kangaroos reappeared from behind a virtual hill and launched a barrage of Stinger missiles at the hapless helicopter.

Apparently the capable programmers had forgotten to remove that part of the infantry detachment coding. Objects in computer code are defined with certain attributes, and any new object defined in terms of an old one inherits all of its attributes.

Humbled programmers learned to be more careful in reusing object-oriented code, the Americans gained new respect for Australian wildlife, and simulator supervisors report Australian pilots strictly avoid kangaroos now.

[From June 15, 1999 Defense Science and Technology Organization Lecture Series, Melbourne, Australia, and staff reports under the title “Mutant Marsupials Take Up Arms Against Australian Air Force”; via Good Clean Funnies List, online at http://www.gcfl.net; “This funny was received from Rodney Ford,” published December 1999. Edited for publication by SIEW.]

It’s critical we model the right people; as Christians it’s important we model Christ Jesus. When people imitate others, they inherit the attributes of the ones they imitate [1 Corinthians 15:33]; when we imitate the Lord, we inherit His attributes … faithfulness, goodness, kindness, gentleness, long-suffering, etc. I believe Paul called these the “fruits of the Spirit” [Galatians 5:22-23].

When we’re born-again, God appropriates the code originally intended for righteous lives, changes the mapped icon of our hearts from Satan to Christ, and increases our spiritual movement.

He does, however, allow some of the old, object-oriented code to remain … something we call free will. That’s why every once in a while, when we drop our shield of faith, there’s the devil, or one of his henchmen, slinging flaming missiles at the opening in our armor [Ephesians 6:16].

Christianity, Illustrations,
Nature, Religion

POWER (God's): Never, no ever intermittent!

GREEN LIGHT POWER: [Romans 1:16]

From my good friend Cornelius Claassen in Wellcomen, South Africa ...

Spending fever has reached all walks of South African life. Here's a fellow who lives in a squatter camp beyond Somerset West in Western Cape who now wants a television set — a new one, mind, not that secondhand thing in the pawn-shop window - so he buys one from the High Street furniture retailer.

But he's back next day, saying the thing keeps switching off just at the crucial moment. The shop checks it out and can find nothing wrong, but soon enough he's back with the same complaint.

This time the shop sends out a technician to pop round to see what the problem is. When the technician gets there, he discovers our guy's shack draws its electricity from a nearby traffic light, and that the TV only works when the light is green.

There's no argument some people think God's power is intermittent but they fail to notice they've plugged into the AC (alternating current) outlet rather than the DC (direct current) outlet. God provides the DC, I wonder who provides the AC?

The above was copied directly from a South African newspaper (which is unknown to The CRIB).