Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

"Well, what does the Bible say?" I found myself asking this on more than one occasion as I talked to the individuals I counseled on Saturday and Sunday. They didn't know. They knew what people said it may have said (some were right and some were wrong), but there was no knowledge of the Scriptures independent of what people said it meant. There is now no question in my mind what solving problems (or attempting to solve them) in our own strength means. And the fruit that such a pursuit bears - I've seen it with my own eyes and it is awful. I asked them to weigh my counsel against the commandments and principles found in the Word and make sure that the advice I was giving them was in line with it. I also asked them to correct me if my counsel was found lacking because I would counsel others in a similar situation the same way. They haven't come back to me so I assume that it was Scriptural. Or maybe I shouldn't assume that. At any rate, I can't rely on them ...

I have 3 brothers and two sisters so there is ample opportunity for us to be at odds with one another. In fact, the way the world is, I am surprised that we are not more upset with each other than we have a tendency to be (which is hardly ever). As a family, we have been wrangling through some issues and have had opportunity to offer counsel to an individual but, largely, on our own. We have had minimal coordination between us concerning how we were going to cousel this individual and what we were going to say. Yesterday I had a conversation with my brother and sister in law concerning the content of their counsel to this individual and came away with an unusual amount of peace. Not that I expect things to go wrong when they are involved, but I the peace I felt was rooted in knowing that we are appealing to a common authority (the Scriptures) when counseling this individual. This has led us to give advice to this person that is, straight up, the same - as if we were in the room togethe...

I know it doesn't sound like much but I jogged outside for the first time since graduate school in Albany, New York. I only did about 2.5 miles but I think I could have done 3 if I really tried. It felt good and I didn't even take my iPod along with me. I guess I had enough to look at and ponder as I made my way through the neighborhood. It was not as rapturous an experience as some make it out to be, but it might grow on me yet. For some reason I was really nervous about doing it. I am not sure where that nervousness came from, but there was a certain apprehension about venturing out from the treadmill in the basement and into the great wide open. Well, with that under my belt I will continue down the path until I can get the part I need to fix the treadmill. It is almost as if God said, "There - that's busted. Time to try something new." Maybe that's why we get sick and suffer like we do sometimes. It is just God's way of revealing another part of Himsel...

OK, I broke my treadmill this morning and, upon looking through the manual for the replacement parts, I found this: Sigh. Oh well, what am I going to do. Powered by ScribeFire .

The oldest came up to me and asked, "Daddy, who is Captain Slappy?" "A pirate," I said wondering where in the world that question came from. He let out a deep sigh and said, "He was right." The "he" was in reference to his younger brother. When I asked my wife why I was quizzed as I was she mentioned (in a not-too-happy-about-it-tone-of-voice-coupled-with-an-eye-roll) that it was a topic of conversation between the two of them all day. Ahhhh....summertime with boys. It is almost like it is a universe unto its own. Powered by ScribeFire .

Hey - I was listening to a Chris Rice album, Past the Edges, this morning and thought of you when he sang Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe And blessed are the hands that keep giving and never receive Blessed is the heart that gets broken, but keeps holding on Keeps holding on another day 'Cause that's what it means to live by faith. Isn't it just like God to free us from sight? Your hands are, certainly, just like Christ's. Powered by ScribeFire .

A while back I wrote about "playing the ball" which, when applied to life, means that I need to engage the circumstances in my life rather than passively watch them happen. I also, to my wife's chagrin, apply this to my euchre strategy in that I would rather make trump than have trump made for me. I was very impressed with my wife this weekend as she played the ball, so to speak, better than I have seen in a long time. There were two circumstances yesterday where, without flinching, she moved in to fill a need in a way that showed extraordinary selflessness. It not only reinforced the great thing that it was that she said yes to my marriage proposal but showed both the saved and unsaved the extent that she is controlled by the Spirit of God Himself. She will not have trump made for her nor will she stand flat-footed as the ball careens off of the heel of her glove. She has moved and will continue to move, deliberately and sacrificially, to demonstrate her care for those a...

Out of all the things I could be doing, what about building a Linux distribution of my own called MarkDudleyRambles Linux. The home page to the browser bundled with the OS could be my blogs on Blogspot and Wordpress. I even went so far as to begin the download the of the LiveCD to begin the process. I think it would be fun and, um, who could say that they have their very own Linux distribution? Or, to put it another way, who would want to say that they have their very own Linux distribution? It is a good thing I am already married. Powered by ScribeFire .

I got caught in a hurricane No one but myself to blame I got lost in the rain Then I got stuck in a spider web Tangled up in all my cares Such a lonely affair - Lose This Life, Tait I admit the deed (Can you hear the beating?) - The Tell-Tare Heart, Tourniquet As a Christian I am called to confess (agree, admit) and, in so doing, find release. Going, making my peace with God is a daily walk for me. Not that I lose my sonship, but I am a rebellious child as God slowly melts my heart and molds it to match that of His Son's. There is such release when, finally, I can come to God as I am when my entire being moves in concert toward Him and I admit that I am undone, weak, and in need of His grace once again. And then there are implications for my relationships and fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I had a friend in college that I never heard confess a single sin. Of course he ascribed to the orthodox position that he was a sinner in need of saving, but as I hung out wi...

When my race has been run I want only this to be said of me: He loved God. Powered by ScribeFire .

One of the few things that I want my sons to internalize is to always look at events in their lives through God's perspective. Not only to see what it is that He requires, but to see the events and circumstances in their lives as if He is moving them along towards something...for, certainly, He is. Now this can get a little hairy at times in that God has a million reasons for everything that happens in my life. I need to accept that things may happen in my life for God to affect change in someone else and rest in the knowledge that I am a tool in His toolbox of sorts. Also, there is a danger in finding a reason for everything, but there are some things that He has clues me in on and, when He does, it is warmly reassuring. During a slow time at work I thought it would be a good thing for me to set up my laptop to run Linux and really begin to learn it. I am doing a lot of work with researchers now and my new found Linux knowledge has proven to be indispensable. Now it could have bee...

This took much longer than it should have, but I finally got the default JRE on my Ubuntu Linux partition on my laptop to be version 1.6. Here is how I did it: 1. Ran the command "sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin" to install the necessary files on the system. apt-get is quickly becoming my best friend. Now, normally, running the "java -version" command would specify what version of Java was identified as the default, but I consistently was receiving this: The program 'java' can be found in the following packages: * j2re1.4 * gij-4.1 * kaffe * jamvm * java-gcj-compat * cacao * sablevm Try: apt-get install Make sure you have the 'universe' component enabled bash: java: command not found Which was interesting since I just installed the JRE. 3. The missing piece was running the command "sudo update-alternatives --config java" which produced this: There are 2 alternatives which provide `jav...

In my exercising this morning (what there was of it) and in the car on my way to work I listened to my iPod Nano on shuffle. They were all upbeat songs (can you imagine exercising to a movement that is Adagio? I can't) and I skipped around a bit looking for the right song to listen to as I drove in, especially. I read a blog post a while back that talked about craving the continuity of an album and I know what the person means. It also has implications for the world view that I hold and the struggle between my position in Christ and my practice here in this life. There is a struggle in me (and in everyone) that is firmly felt in this war between this images of God and of Adam. Thank God the struggle is there for this was the handle God grabbed to drag me to Himself. This is also where I meet people that I witness to and the reassurance that I have that the message I proclaim is relevant and vital. The active, ongoing, suppression of the truth is the tiring lot the unbeliever has an...