Socialist Sushi

Solid peace cannot be enjoyed where there is no true grace; first grace, then peace. Peace without grace is mere stupidity; but grace may be true where there is for a time no actual peace

from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on 1 Peter 1:2

Adrian Holovaty has announced the washingtonpost.com mashup projects. Some nifty stuff. I even got something in.

Actually, I did a tag cloud, too, but someone did a much cooler one.

Woo, my first bug!

portaPuTTY only stored the first server key, which is most likely not what you want. The issue turned out to be a one line fix. You can get the latest binaries and source, or both if you’re feeling frisky.

The code portaPuTTY uses to store its info is from the unix port. The unix version writes the keys to a temp file, then renames the temp to sshhostkeys. So far so good… but the windows version of rename won’t overwrite an existing file. So it was failing on that. Added on unlink and voila.

Maybe over the holiday I’ll set up svn or similar for this to track little changes like this.

I’ve posted portaPuTTY, which will run cleanly on a USB drive.

This is why open source rocks. I had an idea for some changes, downloaded the code and off we go.

portaPuTTY is a hacked version of PuTTY that stores all its information in files, not in the registry. I made this version so I could have a good SSH client to run from a USB drive.

Other than that, it’s the PuTTY you know and love.

Torrents: Binary and source

You can get the binaries here. The source is also available, if you want it.

Keep in mind that I haven’t gone through this thing with a fine toothed comb yet, so it may still use the registry somewhere. Feel free to send any comments along.

If you find portaPuTTY useful, I appreciate donations to my good sushi dinner fund.

Known Issues: Font information isn’t stored properly. A patch has been submitted. As soon as I check it and some other fixes out I’ll put out a new release. I’ve been planning to do this any day now for the past 2 months. I’ll try to get to it soon.

Phil Johnson has had some good posts on modern day prophecy. What’s entertaining — and hardly surprising — is that people who believe in modern day prophets just plain don’t like him pointing out the bad track record of these folks.

He hasn’t even gotten to proof texts for one position or another. He’s just said, “Their accuracy sucks,” (rough summary).

Personally, I’ve seen too many “oh, no, this is what I meant”-type prophecies to put much stock in it.

Updated: fixed link. oops

Looking again at Psalm 37:4:

As I wrote this morning, we are not here being told that God will give us anything we want because we say he’s delightful. Instead, we find that, by seeking after God, we are assured of finding him, and thus finding our fulfillment.

There’s a weird command here, though: How can you be commanded to find delight in something? Isn’t the idea of delight the very antithesis of command: Delight flows from a spontaneous feeling, not a sense of duty.

The issue here is not that this comes as a command from a parent: “You’ll eat your broccoli and you’ll like it!” Well, maybe there’s nothing particular pleasing to me about broccoli. Therefore it may not be right for me to like — find delight in — it. This is not what we find here, however. This is a statement of reality.

We will find nothing worth more than God. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians don’t see this. Since we spend so much time focusing on what we want, we only come to God for what we can get from him. This is the moral equivalent of telling a girl you love her so she’ll sleep with you. It works on some people, but not on God.

God is supremely valuable. He is supremely delightful. Nothing — absolutely nothing! — can compare to his worth.

We must place our focus on God. Anything else is idolatry. Focus on God himself, and not what we think we can get from him. Seek after him, delight in him, and discover your fulfillment in him, and him alone.

It seems to me that this verse contains an odd command, and is often misunderstood. Let’s look at the misunderstanding first.

What is God saying here? I have often heard it used by the name-it-claim-it bunch to say, “If you love God, he’ll give you what you want.” People focus in on that “God will give you stuff” part and ignore what the verse actually says.

The Bible is fairly clear on this: God is not Santa Claus. Some people believe that, if they’re good enough (ie on the good boys and girls list) they will get everything on their wishlist. The same sort of misunderstanding is done with James 4:2:

“If you just ask God,” they say, “You’ll get what you want.” Unfortunately that’s not even close to what James was saying. Let’s look at it in context:

Looks a bit different now, doesn’t it? James isn’t saying God is a vending machine. He’s saying that unanswered prayers are a result of 1) not asking or 2) asking for selfish reasons. He follows this up by saying such things show friendship with the world. Put differently, it shows that our focus is not on God. If my friendship is with — my focus is on — the world, I am standing in oppossition to God.

Think of it this way: Imagine that the world is to the east of you, God to the west. To whatever extent you turn your face to the world, you turn your back on God. This is the nature of selfishness.

Returning to Psalm 34, let’s be careful not to make the same mistake. Let’s not think for one moment that God is so starved for attention that, if we say we delight in him, he’ll reward us with whatever we ask.

So, if not that, what is God saying here? I believe it is the same thing said in other places:

If we seek after God, we will find him. If we want to know him, we will know him, for he will reveal himself to those who follow after him.

If we make him our delight, we will have our heart’s desire.

This is the heart of the misunderstanding: What the psalmist is driving at is simply that we ought to make God the desire of our heart. Every need, every desire we have will have its proper fulfillment in him.

What, now, of this odd command I mentioned? It is this: How can you be commanded to delight in something? Lord willing, I’ll come back to this when I have more time.

9 November, 2005

To the Congregation of Trinity Baptist Church:

I respectfully submit my resignation as pastor of Trinity Baptist Church, effective immediately.

Amber and I thank you for allowing use to serve with you these past few years.

In Christ

Rev. Bryan L. Fordham

Ate lunch at Seasons Asian Bistro, spending some time reading. Came across this passage, and it made me think back to what I was writing this morning.

update: I managed to delete my previous post. Now wasn’t that stupid.

We love to talk about how Jesus dying on the cross shows God’s love for us. And indeed it does; see 1 John 3:1, among many others.

But was that it? Not at all. Jesus prayed for his Father to glorify his name. The replay came: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

What can we make of this? We are indeed to pinnacle of creation, made in God’s own image. God does indeed love us enough to sacrifice his son for us. But let us never lose sight of the central matter: God created us to bring him glory. Christ died to bring him glory.

Not to use, oh Lord, but to your name, be the glory.