A great Christmas morning
This year my church had an awesome opportunity to support another family in our area. Shortly after having her youngest child the mother was diagnosed with cancer and past away within a year. She left her husband and five children behind.
I can’t begin to imagine just how difficult it must be for him. Our church was able pull together and buy Christmas gifts for the entire family (including two grandparents–who now help the single father).
Let’s not forget others this season and remember that God equates helping others with serving Him.
And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
–Matthew 25:40 (NLT)
OS X Leopard Tip: Changing the Computer Name
I’ve had some inquires about how to rename a computer in OS X 10.5 (Leopard), so here are some quick instructions.
Like most (but not all) system settings, the name of the computer is changed in the System Preferences application. This is available from the <root>/Applications folder and also, more easily, off the Apple menu.
From there select the Sharing pane located in the Internet & NetWork row.
In Sharing, the name of the computer is set at the top.
Screenshots are available after the jump.
Teamwork with imperfect people
Throughout history God has demonstrated His ability to work in unique and culturally relevant ways to accomplish His plans. The remarkable thing is that God chooses to incorporate people into His plans.
When we begin working with people to accomplish God’s purposes we foster a sense of teamwork. Teamwork is good; no one can be expected to do everything on their own all the time–besides, God doesn’t work that way. In a team we have the opportunity to discover one another’s gifts and strengths; this is encouraging. We also have the opportunity to discover the shortcomings we each have, both in skills and personality traits.
It’s easy to get discouraged, frustrated, disappointed and even angry by each other’s shortcomings. At the same time we need to remember that conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. Left unresolved it is, but resolving conflicts builds stronger relationships.
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (NIV) reads:
26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things–and the things that are not–to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.
God doesn’t use perfect people. In fact, this passage tells us the exact opposite: God uses imperfect people. God is not really interested in a person’s social status, money, education, job, skill set, or anything else; as much as He is interested in a person’s willingness.
People need to be allowed to try new things and know they can operate in the freedom that they are allowed to make mistakes–and learn from them. If we put aside the differences we have and recognize that it’s okay (and even encouraged) for someone else to do the same task/job/project we have always done a different way, we unlock the power of teamwork.
It doesn’t stop there, we unlock the power of God’s Spirit to operate in and through us as a corporate body. This is truly where the real power lies.
Bible facts
Here are some interesting facts about the Bible that are good to know:
- There are 66 books in the Bible (39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament (“testament” is just a fancy word for contract)).
- The Bible was “penned” by over 40 individuals. By “penned” I mean that God is really the author; however, He used 40 people to write the words down on paper.
- Moses wrote the most Old Testament books (the first five) and Paul wrote the most New Testament books (13 in total).
- The middle chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117 (the middle of the Bible, based on verses, is Psalm 118:8).
- The longest book is Psalms, with Psalm 119 being the longest chapter.
- The shortest book is 2 John, and Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter.
- The Bible was written over the course of 1500+ years by people from all walks of life: from kings and priests to farmers and fishermen.
QuickVerse 2007 updated for 10.5
After a bit of a delay, QuickVerse 2007 has been updated for Apple’s latest OS, 10.5 Leopard. Previous to today’s update, QuickVerse was basically non-functional when used in Leopard (and, apparently, Tiger under 10.4.11) as the Webkit structure it relies on was overhauled by Apple.
Users can grab the 2.5MB update here.
What’s in a name?
Today’s “verse of the day” from BibleGateway.com is a passage from Matthew. Chapter 1, verses 20-21 (NIV) read:
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
The context of this passage is that Joseph has just found out his fiancée is pregnant–a definite taboo in that society–and is considering divorcing her (engagement was almost equal to marriage then).
God sent an angel to deliver a message to Joseph, telling him to go ahead and marry Mary. What’s remarkable in this passage is how this message would have been heard by Joseph. In his day the name Jesus was about as commonplace as Smith is in our Western world.
In a moment Joseph has an incredible experience with God, which is mixed with the commonplace and the everyday. We see that God is not only supernatural, He’s also practical. God frequently takes the orindary and brings it to a place of marvel. The passage also shows us how God’s true nature is to be relevant to the culture of the day.
Small details I like in OS X Leopard: Dictionary
In continuing the series on things I like about Leopard, one great new feature is the improvements Apple made to their Dictionary program. While Dictionary was always nice to have around, it wasn’t really as integrated into the OS as it could have been.
Thankfully, in Leopard this has changed. Not only can one type a word into spotlight and get a definition from Dictionary, but Dictionary itself now includes some new features; the one I like is that it can go on-line and search Wikipedia.
Small details I like in OS X Leopard: Renaming
Having recently upgraded my computer to Apple’s new operating system, 10.5 Leopard, I’m loving some of the great, new features Apple has incorporated. Spaces will definitely help me keep my screen more organized when I have to do video editing. While I haven’t tried Time Machine yet, I’m looking forward to seeing if it’s a viable replacement for one of my backup strategies (which from the various reports I’ve read, looks like it will be).
What I really like about Leopard is Apple’s attention to the small details. For instance, if I select a file and press Return I can rename it (this feature has been around for quite some time), but what’s new is that Leopard automatically only highlights the name of the file, and does not highlight the file extension. A small detail that makes using a computer just a little nicer.