Twitter – the beginning

 Maybe this was the beginning – 1935. And yes – I am aware that this has been posted already several times – I still like it though.

wish you were here

When I listen to this these days it still make sme think ….

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

A lead role in a cage ? Maybe ….

Favorite Quote of the month

I found this through http://www.godisloveloveisgod.blogspot.com/ 

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

‘With hurricanes, tornado’s, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’

Twitter authentication

This week I have worked a little bit on http://mychristnet.com – please check it out to see tha changes.

First of all I have added Twitter authentication – I hope this increases our number of users as it makes the SignUp process seamless. Just login with your Twitter account and your Twitter profile gets synchronized to the site – it stays synchronized until you choose to decouple it (this can be done in the Settings section on mychristnet.com).

The feature works well and I tested it with several accounts and Browsers – however Twitter (obviously) states that this is in beta and that the method could fail at any given time. I take the risk in this case as any website these days is in perpetual beta.

I have also cleaned up the logon page a little bit and worked on the recurring Token Mismatch issues when logging in – this was related to the URL www.mychristnet.com – which did not match with the ELGG root directory where the actual site is hosted. I have taken care of this using some mod-rewrites and I am pretty confident the issue is gone.

So feel free to comment and please check out the site – and God bless you !

Blogpress

I am testing blogpress for the iPhone – some issues with landscape orientation. Besides that all the basic features I need. Pictures work fine. Multiple blogs and providers are supported – overall very nice. Management of posts on the iPhone works well too.

– Post From My iPhone

this is how it all began

 

Now, I guess Pacman was the beginning of Twitter !

Google Wave

If you have not seen this – here is the full presentation.

The Hunt for Gollum

I just love this – made for less than 5000$ – classic !

Monday morning

Good morning out there!

A couple of things come to my mind this morning – first of all if you did not buy a new iPhone yet, you might have trouble getting one according to Fortune and the Apple Website:

http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/06/28/apple-runs-short-of-iphones/

However – I will wait anyway for my contract to run out – so no harm done.

For this week I have planned to upgrade this Blog a little bit – I started this without putting too much thought into it, because I wanted to have a way to communicate the work I am doing on http://mychristnet.com – however a few weeks into the project it seems obvious, that I use Twitter mainly to keep folks up-to-date and use this Blog actually more for real Blogging – so it deserves a better look

I also want to integrate Twitter functionality into http://mychristnet.com – which will be interesting. As you know the site is based on Elgg and some custoim Plugins so it shouldn’t be too hard to enable Twittering to and from the site – however, I have to do these things whenever my real job allows me to do this – so I can’t say when it will be live – just bear with me.

If you have any feedback for this site or http://mychristnet.com – let me know – and if you have not registered for the site please do so (a social networking site without users is just very lame !).

Those are my random thoughts and plans for the week – oh, and if you have a christian site or blog you would like me to link to let me know – I would be happy to do so (and I even create a bookmark for you on mychristnet.com )

the five pillars of Christianity

I have, for some time, wanted to put into words my thoughts on the meaning of Christianity and why it is we “rejoice” so naturally. I know this has been done many times before, with better logic and intellect. But, this morning with your patience, allow me to present my “Five Pillars of Christianity” for your consideration. Before I begin I would like to thank Micha, Jörg, and Karla for their help. First and foremost is Love. It is fundamental in Christian life. You have heard the song, “Without Love You’re Nothing at all”. So it is with Christianity. It begins with God’s love for us. He is the Creator. He made everything we are and everything there is. He is our Heavenly Father. He protects us, provides for us, and cares for us. We, out of gratitude and devotion, love Him in return. But it is not just a two–way street. God wants us, in fact, commands us to love not only Him, also, “one another” (John 15:12). He does so because He knows that is the only way His creation we call “the universe” will work. First we are to love and comfort those in our church family–our brothers and sisters in Christ. And what joy and strength that brings us. We are also to love our neighbors, near and far–complete strangers, people we don’t understand. (Matthew 22:39) Finally, and this is the hard part–the part we really have to work on, we are to love our enemies –people who don’t even like us. He commands it. (Luke 6:27) One other point: He doesn’t tell us to love our wealth, our hobbies, or our earthly possessions. He tells us to love “one another”. Sometimes we get our priorities out of order and need a reminder. So love is fundamental. The second pillar is Guidance. God gives us direction on how we should live. He creates in us a conscience so we know right from wrong. And He gives us a sense of guilt, for when we do wrong. Adam and Eve learned about that early on. He also puts it here in His book for us to read. I have heard people refer to the Bible as a “personal instruction manual”. For example, He gives us The Ten Commandments; verses such as “Beloved, let us love one another;” (1 John 4-7); Paul’s many letters (1 Timothy 3:15); and so on. Further, He gave us, in Jesus, His son, a living, human example to try and follow. How often, when faced with a choice in life, have we asked ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” Besides being the perfect role model, Jesus spoke often in parables giving us logical and God-directed ways of dealing with earthly matters. Have we ever, when faced with a difficult decision, simply opened the Bible to look for guidance? And often we find the answer, right there in front of us. Finally, with regard to guidance, God gives us Prayer. He reminds us to pray “without ceasing” (1 Thess 5-17). He says “Ask and it will be given to you.” (Matthew 7-7) As Christians, prayer is the first thing we think about, especially in a crisis. And when we pray we do it without apology or embarrassment. So often we say, “I’ll pray about it,” or ask someone to pray for us. And what a comfort prayer is for us because…we know it works! The third pillar is Forgiveness. Sweet forgiveness. When we sin (notice I didn’t say “if”), we know it and we are wracked with guilt. This is no accident. God intends for us to feel guilty because we have done wrong, and there must be consequences. But God, through Jesus, has given us a new covenant (Matthew 26:28) which tells us if we acknowledge and try to make right our sins, our guilt will be taken away. Jesus said, to the sinner, “Go forth, and sin no more” (John 8:11). To me what he is saying is “Move on with life. Don’t sin again, but also, don’t allow yourself to be mired in guilt for what is in the past. He is saying, “Leave the guilt to me. Go forward and glorify God.“ Talk about a blessing—what a relief! The sin is still there—we can’t change the past. But God says, don’t dwell on it. God, through Jesus’ sacrifice, allows us to put our mind right so we can go forward and glorify Him. One other point. Because God forgives us, we are taught and expected to forgive others. (Matthew 6:12) The fourth pillar is Hope. Hope–that wonderful blessing God gives us through our faith that tells us no matter how frustrated, how ill, how full of pain, how discouraged, lonely, or frightened we are, He is with us. He will not leave us. He will give us strength and show us the way. It’s His promise and He reminds us of that promise again and again. (Hebrews 13:5, Dt 31:6) And we can feel the comfort of His presence. Have you ever, after having had a particularly bad day, bowed your head and said, “Lord, help me. I’m hurting and I need your strength.” By the time you open your eyes you begin to feel his presence. It’s all about the hope that God gives us; that He has a plan for today, tomorrow and forever. He is in charge and will see us through whatever happens. One way to think of the Hope that God gives us is to imagine not having it. I think about non-believers and wonder at how sad and lonely their lives must be without the peace of God’s Hope. We have a friend who is not well. But to look into her eyes, you would never know it. Her eyes always sparkle with that “blessed assurance” that God has given her. When people want proof that God exists, I ask them to look at her and others like her. What we see is a peace that does not come from worldly contacts, but from a personal relationship with the living God. What better proof do we need? The fifth pillar is Heaven; God’s promise to us that when our days in this life are done, we will have a place to go. How do we get there? By simply believing in Him. (John 3:15, 16) What will it be like? We can read about it. Jesus spoke of it often. We do know that it’s going to be very, very good and that it will be for eternity. One other thing we can be sure of: HE will be there. So those are the five pillars of Christianity, as I see them. In my mind, these pillars are all interconnected; none existing apart from any of the others. The result is a synergism or strengthening of the overall structure. Notice also that these connections can provide the framework of a wall which helps us in keeping Satan and sin out of our lives. In other words, our Christian “house” gives us a sort of fortress that helps ward off the Devil. At this point you may be thinking, ”Well, he has left out this or that.” (And I am sure you would be right.) But taken as a whole, the one thing we can agree upon: Our faith gives our lives meaning and purpose, and so much more. That is the reason we can come together on any day and truly rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118.24) Amen.

Credit goes to Carl for providing this.