Do you ever watch Extreme Home Makeover?
We watch it sometimes. I really like it – what a heartwarming show! And they are doing some real, if somewhat extravagant, good for people.
Tonight the show was about them building a home for a family who had lost their father. Their father was a pastor.
I was so impressed with the respect that Extreme Home Makeover gave to the faith of this family. It was beautiful.
And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”Revelation 4:9-11 (ESV)
It’s all him. Our Lord deserves all the honor and praise and glory. This is evidenced by the willing worship of the elders in the throne room, who with joyful abandon cast their precious crowns at his feet.
He is worthy – really, the only one who is worthy. I was pondering this as I prayed over a matter heavy on my heart. Where human hope runs out there is always hope. Because he died and rose again, and on the cross he paid for all of our sins, Indeed he took them upon himself. The torture and passion of that central fact of history and eternity stands, on its own, as the evidence: he is worthy. He is worthy! And in this world of trouble and woe, the worthiness, power, and glory of the Lord remains. Nothing is too hard for him. Not even dying for unworthy creatures like you and me. He can heal anyone, he can raise anyone, he can reconcile anyone – both to himself and to those around them. And while, through human eyes, we often think that he has not worked, it’s just because we only see a small sliver of reality. He went to the cross for his creation, a creation in rebellion against him. He went to the cross and his blood covers the vilest of us in its purifying flow. He came to reconcile, and to make perfect that which seems unredeemable. He is patient, and – in the best way – stubborn, and determined, and powerful, and terrible in his wrath in his zeal for his name and for his children. Even when his children run from him.
He is worthy. And, thought we often hold on tight to them, when we finally see him as he is we will understand how foolish it is to covet our crowns. He alone is worthy, and in the light of his face we will joyfully cast the crowns he himself made for us at his wounded feet.
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
Revelation 22:17 (ESV)
A good friend of mine is hurting, and he doesn’t know what to do. Please pray for him.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16 (ESV)
I will refrain from many more technical/geek posts, but I will ping you with news regarding the development of Bloo as things develop. I won’t wax eloquent about Bloo anymore in this space, as I now have a Bloo Development Blog where I can do that. And there was much rejoicing!
Also, due to a rising clamor, I think I need to explain just what Bloo is, as a vast majority of the three people who still read this blog have been cocking inquisitive snooks at me about what the heck I am blathering on about. Simply put, Bloo is the software I have written that runs this blog. I put it in the Public domain (meaning: I have made the source code publicly available) and have it out in a SourceForge project as well. For more info, check out the Bloo wiki, which is my growing repository of information on all things bloo.
Now, to the latest Bloo news: I released the second alpha build last night. It fixed a few glaring and dumb errors.
Good night all.
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
– Luke 10:29 (ESV)
Those of us who are deep thinkers (note: that’s not necessarily a good thing) often are guilty of making things too hard.
Who is my neighbor? This one I am to love and sacrifice for?
Yesterday I felt that still, small voice remind me who my neighbor was. And – a rarity – I did something about it. It was a small thing, but I’ve found that the Kingdom of heaven is built out of a billion small things. Me being one of them.
When asking “who is my neighbor?” I’m hoping that I’ll learn not to ponder so deeply, adopting “a chin in a hand and a thoughtful pose” as the Indigo Girls once sang, and instead walk to my front door, take a step out onto the porch, and turn to my right or left.
Well, the deed is finally done. Bloo version 1.0 alpha is now out in the public domain.
Please motor over to the developer’s blog for more information. Sorry about the boring theme over there – I haven’t had time to create any new ones.
And I just found a bug. A spin of the nerd-propeller beanie to the first person who figures it out (note: it’s a bug on the new version of the software. The version you’re looking at is older and without the bug. Go figure).
I’m sleepy . . .
In theory . . .
I’ve been Mr. Mom the past two days, as Jill is in the northeast seeing her parents off to the Ukraine. I’ve taken advantage of the time at home while the kids are at school to refactor the daylights out of Bloo, and am currently creating all those nice-to-haves (an install program, for instance). I “think” I’m on track for releasing this thing tomorrow. I mean today (it’s past midnight). I’ve put in a lot of work over the past few days, and at times I wondered if I wasn’t being a bit of a perfectionist, but I’m of the opinion that spending minutes fixing problems now while Bloo is swaddled in its cradle will save spending days fixing the problems after it’s become a gangly adolescent (or, even worse, just living with them). Assuming “gangly adolescence” ever happens. And how was that for a strained metaphor?.
In any event, I believe it’s been worth it. And I am relieved to have made some of the fixes I made, because they were buggin . . .
I’m tired. But having fun. How is that possible you say? Well, I’m a nerd. A pocket-protector, taped-glassed, propeller-head nerd. It would be sad, really, if it wasn’t so cool! (yes, that’s how we nerds think. Come join us. You know you want to . . . )
And – I promise – once this is released I will return this blog to its true personality, i.e. my personal devotional space. Mainly because I will also unveil the Bloo Developer’s Blog simultaneously with the release. And these kinds of posts will go there.
My three readers are surely getting tired of my Nerdvana posts. Things are good, just busy. God is good, all the time.
More details coming. Watch me for the changes!
Things are going good in the development of Bloo. However, I set the bar pretty high for myself. I’ve architected the Extensions module and I’m pretty happy with the results, but there are a million things left to do to get release candidate 1 out there. I mean, the software works now, but this is my last chance to be able to easily rearchitect things (once people start using** this that gets a lot harder).
But I’m having fun. I’m a nerd.
Looks like a Thursday release!
Watch me for the changes . . .
** of course, it’s a pretty big assumption to assume that’s anywhere near imminent.
. . . as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
– Philippians 1:20 (ESV)
I’ve posted on this before, but I truly love this verse.
I love the phrase “eager expectation and hope”. The word behind “eager expectation” (apokaradokia) is only used one other place in the NT (Romans 8:19). It’s a word that surges, one that, according to Vines, gives the picture of someone watching with outstretched head (apo – from, kara – the head, dokia – to look, to watch). It is a “strained expectancy”, an eager longing, and contains the idea of focus – the abstraction from anything else that might take our attentions.
Paul knew hope. Which is why he could speak of it so eloquently while chained to a Roman guard – most likely a thoroughly evangelized Roman guard! My guess is that the coterie of imperial guards who had “Paul duty” were a mixed bag vis-a-vis whether they enjoyed it or not. To some, Paul represented a hope beyond endless service to a pagan regime – contagious and enticing hope! To others he was, no doubt, just another misguided fool, gabbling on about his crucified god.
Paul didn’t care. He had hope, and he eagerly awaited Christ’s honoring of himself within Paul’s body. Whether by Paul’s life or death, well, it hardly mattered which to the old apostle. He strained forward, like a sleek and powerful horse straining at the starting gate in eager expectation. He couldn’t wait!
I hope that you have hope today. As God’s children we are not to live as those who have no hope. Thank God.
And I pray that God will glorify himself in you and me today.
I have, on purpose, not been posting much these days. That will change, but I have made getting Bloo release-worthy my primary focus, rather than blogging.
On the Bloo front thing’s are good. I’ve been refactoring (that’s a nerd-term for “rewriting stuff that I wrote stupidly the first time”) and adding functionality. Applying naming conventions. Rewriting event handlers. Creating the Extensions administration module (I’m completely geeked out about this!). Trying to anticipate things that might come up and trying to make Bloo, as a whole, more understandable.
Release date – this week (sometime between February 28 – March 2, come heck or high water).
I’m also working with the magnificent Rob T to redo my sister’s business site. Ads Around Town. If you look at it anytime after Sunday, Feb 26, it will look different, and hopefully better.
Oh, and Sourceforge gave me a project page. Because they rule.
Hope your Sunday is fabulous!