Hidden (Krypto) Treasures

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Tag: SOS in Jesus Christ

The Tower of Babel :: Reaching God or God Reaching

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On May 9, 2014

In Babel lessons, Christian, Genesis, Through the Bible

In the article, “The Tower of Babel :: Conservation amidst Confusion“, we learned about the charity and control of God in conserving (saving) mankind amidst confusion from the path that would lead to their own destruction. In today’s article, we shall see a hidden truth from the facts that are evident in this account recorded in Genesis 11:19

Given below are these facts.
Fact #1: Man’s sinful nature makes him want to make a name for himself (Genesis 11:04)
Fact #2: Man tries to reach God by build a tower that would reach the heavens (Genesis 11:04)
Fact #3: God confuses man and scatters them abroad the face of the earth (Genesis 11: 09)

But the Truth that remains is:  Man by his own efforts cannot reach God. This is not God’s plan, lest any man should boast in his works (abilities and achievements). Instead, God reaches down to man, by becoming the Son of Man, born of a virgin and named Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, making it possible for the sons and daughters of me to become the children of God.

Points to ponder:
Our works that aim at saving us would only lead to confusion. Our works wont save us, and we are saved by grace, and grace alone – The grace of God in Jesus Christ, who reached out for man, so that you and I would be able reach God. Are you reaching out for God, to God? and irrespective of your state, you can take heart in the fact, that God is reaching out to you.

Genesis 11:1-9 (KJV)
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
10 These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood.

The Tower of Babel :: Conservation amidst Confusion

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On May 7, 2014

In Babel lessons, Christian, Genesis, Through the Bible

Genesis 11:1-9 gives the account of how God came down and saw the city and the tower that the people were building, and God found that the people were one and had one language, and God said that there would be nothing that could be restrained from men because of their unity, and everything that they imagined, could be done. So God confused the language of the people, so that they could not understand each other, and scattered them upon the face of the earth.

Superficially, this may seem like God was being unfair. Why would God choose to break the unity that man had? What was wrong with just one language? To answer these questions, it is important for us to pay close attention to the testament that God had given of man, that with such oneness in the people, everything that they could imagine could be accomplished (done) without restraint. Now this may not seem overly significant until we put this together with the nature of man, after man sinned. Now before Adam’s sin, man was made upright/perfect (Ecclesiastes 7:29) in the image of God, but after his fall (Genesis 3), sin and its wages which is death came into the world (Romans 5:12), and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). This same fallen nature is implicit in the people, now in the plains of Shinar who are trying to build a tower that reached the heavens, with their motivation being – to make a name for themselves and not for God (Genesis 11:4), very much like the iniquity of pride that was found in the heart of the evil one, Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:2).

So if God was to let the people continue in their unity to build a tower that would make man lofty with pride, so much so that he would reach the heavens, this could only lead to the ultimate destruction of mankind, since a continually evil heart with unrestrained power would lead to vices which all beget death in the end. So God was not being unfair, but in a mysterious way was charitable toward man. God’s love (charity) was implicit amidst the confusion that was caused by him, for he did not man to continue down the path that leads to man’s self destruction. In other words, God was conserving mankind mysteriously amidst confusion. Another word for conservation is Salvation.

Points to ponder:
While events that transpire in our life may seem chaotic and confusing, look for the silver lining in what may seem dark and you will find the Sovereign hand of God, painting your life as a masterpiece – for his charity is expressed even amidst confusion. God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33), but it takes a heart that is not continually thinking of evil, but one that seeks after God’s own heart to see that. Do you see God’s Sovereign hand of control in your life, which is not to make us feel confused, but because of his great charity (love) toward us – Do you see it? He desires to conserve (save) our souls (SOS).

Genesis 11:1-9 (KJV)
1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Professional Speaking :: Jesus The Hacker

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On August 10, 2012

In Christian, Professional Speaking

The 3rd edition of the New Hacker’s Dictionary by Eric. S. Raymond, defines a hacker as an intelligent programmer and defines hacking as the act of coming up with a clever solutions to a programming problem. During the late 90’s, the term “hacker” erroneously became synonymous with the term “cracker” which refers to a person/group who is malicious in intent when using their skills to sabotage (computer) systems, but security professionals in my hacking community, understand this difference. In fact, there are peers of mine, who are pristine in their Spirit, because of their faith, that bring to question the very negative stigma associated with the term “hackers”. Johnny Long, who needs little to no introduction in the security community (the ihackstuff guy who is now the ihackcharities guy and founder of the Hackers For Charity organization) uses his skills to help others who serve Christ, with his family in Uganda; Gervase Markham (known as Gerv), a well known security professional at Mozilla uses his hacking skills for Jesus Christ,  as he believes in using the gift God has given him as a means to glorify God (ref: Why “Hacking for Christ”?). The HackFormers organization (www.hackformers.org) serves the Information Technology (IT) community in the Austin area by staying true to their mission which is to “Teach Security; Teach Christ; Teach Security In Christ”. I could go on and on, with many more who can help us understand that the term “hacker” is in and of itself not to be negatively understood as one who is nefarious, but instead, it simply refers to someone who is noble with skills and expertise to figure out how computer systems are architected and identify any weaknesses or controls in them. “Whitehat” hackers are noble and use what they find, to help better implement security in the organization that they provide their services to.

In September 2011, the Economist published an article entitled “What Would Jesus Hack?” which spoke about how the Christian community has a lot in common with the open-source software movement. So What Would Jesus Hack? or can we consider Jesus to be a Hacker? A hacker is an expert who can look into how systems are architected and identify any weaknesses or controls within. Information Systems (and Software) are usually architected with weaknesses in them and they need controls to be implemented in them so that they are protected against breaches. The Bible teaches us that “Jesus knew what was in man.” (John 2:25). In other words, Jesus, The Hacker can look into his creation (man) and he knows what is in man; man’s weaknesses to temptations and man’s propensity to sin and continue in sin (whose wages is death), or The Control of the Holy Spirit in man (whose gift is security of our soul and eternal salvation).

Points to ponder:
If Jesus The Hacker was to look into your life and mine today, what would he find? Will he find us secure in God with the Holy Spirit of God within us, for having believed in him or would he find us weak as a slave to sin? Let Jesus The Hacker hack us, for he knows what is in us. Let him become THE CONTROL in us and secure our souls from getting eternally breached in hell.

John 2:22-25 (KJV)
22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.
24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,
25 And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

Psalm 51:5-7 (KJV)
5 Behold, I was shapen [architected] in iniquity [weakness]; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

1 Peter 1:7-14 (KJV)
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:

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