To a modern Christ-follower, the word religion is often spoken against.  Religion is associated not only with spiritless, lifeless legalism, but also with most of the world’s major atrocities.  However, God has given us the definition for religion and that is to take care of those in need and to keep your mind from being polluted by the world.

Yesterday we visited the Hogar Christiano Puntarenas Orphanage in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.  It was an all female orphanage that housed girls from the age of 1 – 18.  It was difficult to get an appointment with the orphanage because it was Catholic-run, and to my knowledge, they wanted to prevent outside influence on the girls.  Fortunately, we were given about two hours to visit and spend time with them.  We sang, danced, played games, and did our best to talk despite the language barrier.  There were about 40 girls, and the youngest was one year old.  The younger girls were carefully looked after by the older girls, and it was evident that they had formed a big family.  As far as I could tell, the orphanage did a great job of providing for these girls, but they still lacked the affection and love that daughters need from their parents – especially a father.

God’s heart for adoption is clear.  The beauty of the gospel is that God, through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus, took those who were not and made them to be Sons of God.  We had no identity or home, and we belonged to the world.  Yet God saw fit to not only save us, but offer us His Kingdom as well.  Upon adoption into His kingdom we have been given full rights as Sons.  We are not beggars or peasants sitting at the gates of the Kingdom; we are Sons and Daughters.

It is no wonder that we are commanded to take care of orphans.  God has shown us a perfect example of compassion through adoption, and we ought to imitate our Father.

We were hesitant to leave the orphanage because the girls had captured our hearts, but we had to.  A few of the girls were in tears, and it was clear that they rarely received visitors.

It might be easy to make the decision to adopt when a four year old girl who is starved for affection is clinging to you.  However, it is much more difficult to obey the commands of Christ simply because you love Him.  We often require heart-wrenching experiences in order to believe Him.  Unfortunately, the Church remains in a perpetual state of unawareness.  When we do feel challenged by God’s Word, we pull out our checkbooks and look for the nearest organization that does what God has actually called us to do.

It is my challenge to those who take on the title “Christian” to care more about the commands of Christ than you do your job, your church, and yes, even American Idol.  Stop wasting your time with Jersey Shore, and start thinking about the orphans and the widows.

Every visit, every letter, and every prayer is more important than you know.  If you don’t know of an orphanage or children’s home to visit, feel free to write to these girls:

Hogar Cristiano
200 E. de la entrada principal del hospital
Monseuou Sanabria
Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Jesus taught that there are two ways to live your life – following your own personal desires or surrendering your life to something greater.  By nature we are self absorbed.  We have no interest in helping others if it comes at any cost to ourselves.  We are taught to protect ourselves and our possessions and to look out for ourselves first.  The world teaches us that if we want to gain something we must pursue it, if we want money we must strive for it, and if we want to keep our lives we must hang on for dear life.

Jesus taught something quite different and revolutionary.  “For whoever wishes to save His life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

By nature, we are dead asleep in our understanding of life.  We live like materialistic zombies constantly pursuing excess believing that if we just had a little bit more we would be happy.  Once I get that house, or once I can afford that car THEN I will finally be happy.  A complete awakening is required to fully experience life, and it is the awakening that Jesus taught us about.  Once you surrender your life to this greater cause, you start to see the world clearly.  You see the meaninglessness of possessions and the infinite importance of faith.  In faith, to surrender is to win.  Wake up and surrender!

In January I went to a missionary conference put on by Overland Missions.  I was surprised to find that many of the missionaries carried iPads.  In some cases, this was the only thing they carried because they could access the internet, their bible, and write notes using this device.  Growing up I would’ve been reprimanded for bringing such technology to church instead of my bible, but things have certainly changed.  In fact, making the bible accessible through a device like the iPad opens doors for missionaries.

Many countries restrict the circulation of bibles, and gathering publicly for prayer or worship is illegal.  In fact, just this month there were multiple occasions where a group of Christians were shot and killed in Pakistan.  A church in Nigeria suffered two bombings, but both failed.  Fortunately, the first exploded prematurely killed the three man carrying it.  In Malaysia, there are reports the government confiscating over 30,000 bibles.  These are just a fraction of the incidents that have occurred and been reported by Voice of the Martyrs, an organization that supports Christian martyrs across the world.  With this persecution in mind, technology becomes infinitely more important in the spreading of the gospel and of basic human rights.  The gospel can be stored on a thumb drive, a computer, a phone, or a tablet.  “Sneaking” bibles into countries is no longer a difficult task.

Computer nerds are a missionary’s best friend.  Besides the ease of transporting the bible, technology has enabled missionaries to stay in touch with their families and friends while serving in remote places.  One of my best friends, Derek, spends most of the year riding a bicycle through a handful of countries in Africa spreading the gospel and creating a map of tribes that have never been reached.  In some areas on these journeys, he is able to find a wifi connection and communicate with me.  Lately, a new technology has been introduced that allows missionaries to keep track of their journeys with pictures and reports.  This is a website called Timbuctu.me.  It’s open to the public, but it was designed by the President of Overland Missions with the goal of allowing missionaries to track their missions, stay in touch, and share information.  This is a location and time based social network.  Most importantly, it keeps a permanent record of missions so multiple missions groups can stay organized and avoid duplicating work.

The use of technology in the mission field opens doors for more people to get involved.  Not everyone is designed to ride a bike around Zimbabwe, but many people can contribute financially and through the use of technology.

For the typical user, it doesn’t really matter which browsers you use.  Your experience is going to be similar on all platforms.  I would submit, however, that there are plenty of reasons to avoid using Internet Explorer.

This article may come off as one written from the perspective of an Apple fanboy (which I admit – I’m a recovering fanboy) or simply one who hates Microsoft (of which I’m only mildly guilty).

First, I’ll introduce a little browser history.  If you used the internet in the 90′s there’s a good chance you were using Netscape Navigator.  This was the best browser available, and most computer manufacturers were installing Navigator on Windows before distributing.  Microsoft did what some call ‘smart business’ and bundled IE with Windows disallowing manufacturers to include Navigator with the package.  Naturally, Netscape lost market share dramatically and went from about 80% to less than 10% in just a few years.  This move by Microsoft to get rid of the competition was the premise for their antitrust trial where it was considered monopolistic and illegal to bundle IE with Windows.  Unfortunately, the damage was already done.

So what happened to Netscape Navigator?  Netscape was bought by AOL, and Navigator’s successor, Communicator, was the base for the Mozilla Application Suite including Firefox.  AOL stopped development of Navigator in 2007 and continued on with Firefox.

The second reason to stay away from Internet Explorer is because of their rendering engine.  Safari and Chrome both use the Webkit engine, and Firefox uses Gecko.  Each of these engines render web pages similarly and they are both capable of rendering the latest in internet standards including CSS3.  The current version of Internet Explorer is behind in it’s capabilities, and IE 9 which will use Trident 5.0 will finally catch up with where Gecko and Webkit are already.

The issue of net neutrality has found its way out of the spotlight for the past few months, but it will remain a topic of debate as long as there is an Internet.  “Net neutrality” is a term that means no restrictions on the Internet.  This means that no ISP (Internet Service Provider) or Government can restrict users’ access to the Internet.  Typically, ISPs are in favor of Internet restrictions as they can profit from charging users for access to specific types of sites.  Imagine if the Internet were treated like cable TV where users had to pay for access to “channels”.  Companies like Verizon were profit tremendously, but does these restrictions constitute as censorship?

If the Internet is anything like America, it will start out perfectly free and slowly progress towards an environment where you can’t walk out your front door without having to mind three million rules and getting charged fees for existing.  This is why the Internet MUST remain out of the government’s control.  Small government equals freedom.

As for ISPs, it would be highly inconvenient and much more expensive for ISPs to have free reign over the Internet, but it still boils down to a matter of principle.  It goes without question that the government has no right to censor the Internet, but should companies like Verizon have this right?  As a believer in the free market, I think Verizon should be able to do as they please so long as they aren’t in volition of any competition or anti-trust laws.  If there is no foul conduct in the market, Verizon can charge for restricted Internet access and consumers will simply opt against their service and put them out of business.

However, I’m not foolish.  I don’t pretend to believe that Verizon and other ISPs are playing fair.  In this market there are enormous barriers to entry and economies of scale.  In a single area there are typically only one or two options for Internet.  Residents of large cities may have more options, but the average consumer does not. I believe the ideal solution is for the government to encourage this market to enter a state of perfect competition instead of the oligopoly (and often monopoly) that it is.  Then we won’t have to raise questions of net neutrality because ISPs will be competing for business rather than thinking of new ways to squeeze money out of their customers.

I used to write more often because I had no one to talk to on a regular basis.  I spent more time thinking and writing and less time talking.  This sounds sad, but it isn’t.  Now all I do is talk.  When things are going well, I talk about it.  Even more, when things are rough, I can’t stop talking about it.

Talking gets me into trouble.  Now that there is a girl in my life, I’ve turned into a complete fool.  I’ve never felt more vulnerable.  Before, I could care less what any one human being on this earth thought – I was emotionally invincible.  Now I’ve given my heart over to this girl, and she does with it as she pleases.  Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it’s amazing, but sometimes..it hurts. When it hurts, I start to reason, and my mouth doesn’t stop moving.  The more I talk — the more trouble I get into.  It’s an equation that always produces the same answer.

James says to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.  Man’s anger doesn’t bring about the kind of righteous life that God requires.  I’ve noticed that it is more effective to pray than to talk.  Silence is more rewarding than speaking.  Silence is self-control.

Since I don’t have anything important to talk about I’ll write about the luck (or maybe divine providence) I’ve had today.

First, I received a letter from Dave that I’ve been waiting for.  That sounds silly, but it’s true.  If it’s been more than a week since writing to Dave, I’ll go to the mailbox everyday with hopes of finding my reply.  These letters are like a gift. 

Second, I made my first Craigslist sale today.  Since I got off work early I had time to make the exchange: one PSP for 75 dollars.  I think I came out on top.  

Lastly, I accidently made a delicious meal.  I started boiling some egg noodles.  After I thought they were finished, I drained the water and threw in some extra-virgin olive oil.  The noodles started sticking to the pot once I put them back in, so I had to scrape pretty hard with my fork.  Finally, I threw in some parmesan cheese and cajun seasoning (the first two things I could think about).  A pretty good meal followed.  

This concludes my list.  I think I’ll move on to something else now.

Last night was my first time preaching.  If you’re actually interested in hearing what I had to say you can find Impact’s podcasts at impactmovement.net; click the ‘media’ tab, then ‘podcasts’.

I’m in Indiana right now, and it’s cold.  Two nights ago the wind chill was -25 degrees Fahrenheit.  For those of you who don’t know what that feels like, stick your head in your freezer for about ten minutes, and then note that in -25 you could stick your head in that same freezer to keep warm.  

My parents’ house was built in 1800, and we rely totally on 3 of our 6 fireplaces to keep warm.  In some areas small space heaters are used as well, but they aren’t very effective.  I love to think that for over 200 years people have lived in this house using the same primitive means to keep warm.  The house has three layers of brick on the outside, and this is the only insulation from the cold.  You can imagine how much firewood is needed to be comfortable.  For years people sat around the fireplace at night because that was the only source of heat and light.  The fireplace was where they cooked, had discussions, read.  I wish we had more of an opportunity to rely on such simplicity.

I re-memorized it so I can recite it for my grandmother when I go home for Christmas; she loves that poem as well.  Here it is from memory (just believe me):

Whose woods are these? I think I know.
His house is in the the village, though;
he will not mind me stopping here
to watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
to stop without a farmhouse near
between the woods and frozen lake
the darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
to ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
but I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.