Well, we finally did it! Lisa and I picked an adorable 3-year old Nicaraguan boy to sponsor today, Joaziel. We’re so excited to be able to give just a little to help give him a better future. You can (and should) sponsor a child for as little as $32/month at Compassion!

It’s amazing how much “love” in the Bible doesn’t revolve around a guy and a girl. If you ask most people what love is these days, they’ll most probably refer to romantic love, and then tack on some addendum about a parents love, or something similiar. The focus in 1 John is quite the opposite.

I was reading in the third chapter today, verse 17 (NIV) “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” Here I was feeling pretty good about linking to Compassion international on our goPulls petition site, but the reality is that I don’t give half of what I could. Sure, the brothers that surround me in day-to-day life aren’t the ones who need it, but can I neglect to give just because those who really do need the help are a continent away?

I think it’s high time Lisa and I sponsored a child.

Talk about a blessing: being able to change a life.

1000tags.com is trying to do what the million dollar webpage did. Sell overpriced links. It’s kind of like fancy jewelry. Once you get enough people to notice it, you can charge a fortune for it, but people will buy it to get noticed. Will this one work? Who knows. It’s kind of neat that you can buy either a front-page link for more cash, or a categorized link for cheaper.

If you’re gonna buy a link though, do it quick. Because as soon as this thing gets totally mainstream, no one will ever visit it again. Probably. Unless the next generation’s Strong Bad writes about it. (I think that fad died already, or is dying…but it’s still funny)

Ah, yes, another day studying love. Today I read in 1 John 2 about how we should not love the world, or anything from it. Because if we love such things, the love of the Father is not in us. Hmm, what exactly are those things?

1. The cravings of sinful man
2. The lust of his eyes
3. The boasting of what he has and does

Ok, so which of those am I guilty of? (Umm, well….at times, all of them.) Ouch.

Well, I’m not studying these to give myself or anyone a guilt trip, but rather that we might more fully realize just how important God’s Grace is, and see ways in which we can change our lives to honor him more.

Well, I’ve decided that my life (while great) isn’t quite all I would like it to be. Let me rephrase that: my life could be a better reflection of my faith. And no, that doesn’t mean I’m going all Bible-thumping on anyone. It just means that I’d like to be a bit more Christ-like.

In Church on Sunday, Pastor Knute mentioned the Fruit of the Spirit. I’m afraid I didn’t hear much of the rest of the sermon, because it got me thinking. How well do I love? Do I exhibit joy? How peaceful am I? Shoot, that’s only three out of nine, and I’m not stacking up so well.

So these next nine weeks, Lisa and I are going to take one fruit per week and examine our lives. This week is love, and what a great place to start! How about you? How well do you love…your wife…your kids…your coworkers…your boss…your parents…your God?

It seems someone recently discovered a problem that makes any Windows release since 1990 vulnerable to hackers, and all you have to do is view an image. This could be in an email, on a random website, over IM, anywhere.

Unfortunately, Windows isn’t expected to release a security patch until the 10th, so in the meantime, be very very careful about where you’re surfing and which emails you’re opening. You don’t want to get hit by this one.

It’s suprising that it’s been around since 1990 and they just now found it. Kinda makes you wonder what else hackers are going to find, doesn’t it?