Thursday, May 26, 2011

Reconnecting to Your Network






This past week I’ve had nothing but computer problems on not one but three different computers! One was a simple fix of renewing my antivirus software. But the website wouldn’t recognize me so I couldn’t login for a couple of days until I could get logged into my account and pay for the renewal.


The second computer caught a bug that stopped me from being able to connect to the internet except for a website that wanted to sell me a fix to my problem that they had caused by their Trojan virus. That took a couple of days to fix with the help of another computer and downloading a free fix that worked when the computer ran in the safe mode. Now in all fairness it could have been fixed sooner but I’m not an expert so it takes me a while to think through everything and come up with an action plan.


My last computer problem was the death of my backup battery for the cmos in the third computer. Now replacing a battery isn’t a big deal but upon reconnecting the computer to all the wires and cords I discovered that I was no longer able to find my intra-net at the office. So for the last few days I’ve been able to use the computer and surf the World Wide Web but I’ve been unable to get to any files on the server or use any printers other than the one directly connected to my computer.


First I tried to fix the problem myself being the great computer guru I am (see my comment above) and after failing miserably I eventually called my friend and computer expert. “Together” we discussed my dilemma over the phone and he tried to help me. There were a number of small but necessary changes that we made to the operating system hoping to get the computer reconnected to the intra net but to no avail. Finally he suggested that I try refreshing my modem and router to see if that might solve the problem.


It DID! I was ecstatic and my friend was able to get rid of my annoying phone call.


Sometimes we forget that we need to refresh our connection with God and with community in general. Have you been feeling disconnected lately, perhaps your battery needs to be replaced, or maybe you have been infected with a virus?


If your battery is low your operating system won’t work and life will not boot up. If you have caught a virus your life will be infected and your life won’t run smoothly and often things just won’t work right. You will need to run a Biblical scan of your life and scrub it clean. Finally if you have had a problem with your life and you are trying to access your heavenly server, don’t forget to reboot your entire system so that you will be able to reconnect with God.


Scanning my life with the Word


Pastor Val

Monday, May 2, 2011

Royal Wedding



This weekend over 3 billion people witnessed (estimate based on yahoo news) the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton. Almost 2000 guests witnessed the exchanging of vows in Westminster Chapel. What I found interesting was the choice of who was invited to the event and who was excluded. While many high profile people were invited a number of important political people were excluded including President and Mrs. Obama, the president of France and two former prime ministers of Great Britain. Additionally the Syrian ambassador was uninvited to the royal wedding due to Syrian government using lethal force against pro-democracy protesters.

Jesus talks about a wedding banquet and continued to teach on the subject of who is invited and who is ultimately excluded from the banquet in the third book of the New Testament entitled

the Gospel of Luke. You can read the story in Luke 14:15-24. It tells of a banquet where people are invited but are too busy to attend. So the banquet giver invites anyone and everyone who will accept his invitation to come and attend the feast.

The wedding banquet motif is further enhanced with another story Jesus told found in the first

book of the New Testament, Matt 22:1-10. In this story the king throws a party for the wedding of his son but the guests not only don’t want to come they absolutely refuse to come, mistreat the king’s servants and some are even killed. So the king invites anyone and everyone (other than the original invitees) to come and celebrate the wedding. It appears that he goes so far as to even provide garments for some of the less fortunate guests to wear to the banquet.

Both of these stories help to describe the coming Kingdom of God and the wedding feast that will one day take place. There is coming a royal wedding the likes of which will blow away the pomp and circumstance of William & Kate’s.

Bible calls this the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Rev 19:5-9. The church is the bride and Christ the bridegroom. I’m looking forward to day when the bridegroom comes to take his bride to the party!

The celebration will be epic!

Pastor Val