Just because we can do something like use RFID as a way to harness and manage tasks, does it make it a good thing? Watch the movie and learn how we are moving faster and faster into the brave new world we have been warned about for such a long time. It absolutely stinks of “the mark” that non believers laugh off as a pathetic religious paranoia and the faithful look for as a possible sign that the time of redemption is at hand. Am I saying this is a direct indication that the “Mark of the Beast” will be this technology? No. But what I am saying is that as this and many other ideas of changing, altering, enhancing our bodies is socialized and made acceptable the only people who will give any resistance will be viewed as a “religious right” conspiracy nut case. Just look at how opinions have been changing over social and ethical hot topics in our cultures world wide over the last half century. As the world gets smaller through mass communications so does the number of people who have a high view of scripture.  As I watched all I could think was Revelation 13:15 – And he had power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

I have been spending time with some friends talking about what real Christianity looks like. It’s funny, because most of what people think of is, being good, kind, patient and the like, but that’s not it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, those things are all very important, and are ear marks of a changed life. But its not doing those things that make us Christians. That’s what most of us are trying to do. We are trying to be those things. We can no more be those things by shear determination than an apple tree can will for fruit to appear. An apple tree produces apples because its in its nature to do so. It doesn’t have to struggle or strain to make the fruit happen, you don’t walk by apple orchards and hear trees grunting and fussing or see fruit popping out of no where like magic. No, first there is the spring rains and then the summer rains and then after a while then comes the harvest. Fruit takes time, some times a long time, some trees have to be pruned here and there to get any fruit out of them. But that’s the job of the tree dresser not the tree. The tree just is.

So how in the heck are we expected to produce this fruit? I mean its not in our nature, our nature is to do the exact opposite of all the things God has called us to be in Christ. So some how we have to put off this old nature this “old man” and put on Jesus. Now we can try to control our habits and desires by doing some of the same tactics we use by trying to be good and kind etc. But again that’s going to lead to failure every time. Jesus said we have to be born of both the water and the spirit. What the heck does that mean? Well to be born of the water is to be born in the flesh, what we see and touch, our physical body. So our nature is to be water beings, our body parts our bodies are filled with water. We can try to block off areas that cause us to sin but sooner or later the old nature of ours is going to fill that spot we have been trying to keep dry and clear of water. So what can we do? whats the answer? We have to be filled with something that can displace that old nature, we need something that is heaver than water, we need some oil. Jesus said we needed the “infilling” of the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful thing that the symbol of the Holy Ghost is oil the perfect substance to displace our old nature. As we are filled with the Holy Ghost, HE displaces the water of our old nature and puts on the “New Man” and now there is found no place for that old man to have his way. He has been evicted out of the house.

Now once we are empty of the water and are filled with the oil of gladness we have to be continually filled. We are all cracked pots that leak. If we don’t remain in constant fellowship with the Father and the Son through the gathering of the brothers and sisters, prayer and meditation and actively reading the word. the old nature will begin to fill the pot once again as the oil leaks out thorough the cracks. This is why we see so many struggling with their walks.  This corruption will put on in-corruption. We will one day be in-corruptible, but that’s our new bodies, these bodies, well they are corrupted. That water nature is built in and until its is transformed at his appearing we have to yield to his filling us to stave off the effects of our true sin nature.

So what does true Christian living look like? Its being filled with the oil of the Holy Ghost “living water” Its understanding your true spiritual poverty and understanding your brokenness. Its yielding to God and allowing Him to displace your nature with His, then simply being who He has made you to be in Christ, nothing more, nothing less.

I happened to be watching ABC Family Channel on TV tonight, the wife and I enjoying a little family oriented programing. Well at the end of the show we were watching a promo comes on for “the 700 club” well right before the show starts I hear ” the following program does NOT represent the views of ABC Family” now that caught my ear, I had to do a double take, it has gone from “the following program MAY NOT represent the views of ABC Family” to “NOT”. the views. Does this surprise me? No, but I think its just one more little indicator of where we are in the course of human history. Just one more source calling faith in Jesus evil. I guess the new tag line ” A different kind of Family” explains a little of what and where that disclaimer comes from. Just something to chew on.

While I am not much of a Microsoft Fan Boy, I have to admit they are doing some good things these days, one of them is bringing Bill Buxton on board in 2005. I have had the great privilege of spending time on several occasions with Bill who is now a principal researcher at Microsoft. Bill spoke at several of the same conferences I was also presenting at. I got to share some of my ideas with him on the relationship of information and its association to end users in relation to time and space. What I call “ASK” Associated Spacial Knowledge, not that he would remember those conversations…  I also was able to see him speak when he was the lead engineer at SGI working on Maya back in the late 90′s. Even then, at SGI, Bill was working on NUI, he did a show and tell session with some of the various sculpting devices they were developing. It was truly and amazing session, very organic in its presentation and delivery. He does not do a caned presentation, everything is on the fly, moves very quick and never boring. If you have the chance to speak with him or see a presentation of his, take the time to absorb all you can. Here is a great link if you want to get a feel for what you should be thinking about when it comes to human interface. Enjoy!

I find myself asking why am I doing this or that a lot these days. What we do, when we do it, how we do it, no matter what it is, from making a meal, to reading a book, is all rooted in what our motivation is for the doing the action. Even the smallest of actions has a root cause to it. This has had me thinking, a lot!

So the big question is who am I trying to impress? Me? Those around me? God? Motives are the real deal, the core of the matter, man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart of a man. So with that in mind I have been looking at what motivates me to do ministry? Asking the hard questions, what is it that I am looking for? Why do I want to do this work? Struggling with these questions I have come to some cold hard facts. In ministry the motivation of approval, or acceptance can’t be used to create, maintain or sustain ministry. Sure in the power of the human experience anyone can begin a work, but it will come at a cost, and the end result will be a man made monument to self. If you start something looking for approval, once you get it, you will want to maintain it, that leads to compromise. Making the obsession with approval the purpose vs the glory of God. The Lord said “A man needs to count the costs of building a house before he starts, so that once he has begun, he does not run out of funds, only after laying the foundation, and then be left to open shame, unable to complete what he started”. While the idea and context of this verse deals with salvation it has an application with motives as well.

So I have started to “count the costs”
Looking into my life and motives for ministry. I’m sure of my calling, I know the Lord has called me to a work, we all have a calling. But to be able to be used to perform the work, I need to understand why and how I am to complete the work. If I do it in my own power or allow my motivation to come from the wrong reasons then I will sorely fail. This will also leave a monument to open shame.

We all have seen houses, buildings that have been started and not finished. They stand as a constant reminder of, what could have been, what might have been, only if. They become a place of doubt and an indictment against anyone who comes along later to create a similar building. The community doubts with all natural outward appearances that it, too, will fail, just as the one before it.

Through this process I have discovered, understood in a real way, that, we are accepted, grafted in, there can be no more work to make anything we do to entice God to look on us with favor. He has already imparted that to us, even so by making his thrown room available to us, where we can cry out to him, “daddy, daddy”. Coming from a background where I seldom had approval from father and mother figures in my life because of my being orphaned it confused my thought process when it came to my relationship with Jesus and the Father. I find myself at times striving, wondering, hopping for approval for works that I can do vs. doing and being motivated out of a Love for God. Wrapping myself in the cloak of “If I can accomplish this then God will love me more and I will win his approval”. Not that I think I can earn salvation, I full well know that only the work of the cross that Jesus did can accomplish that. But there is a longing to be approved by God, that my value can some how be derived by the work that I do for him.

This is trying to build on the foundation that Jesus had built. We all need to allow God to finish the work he has begun in us. Let the master builder raise the walls, place the roof and then come and take HIS bride home.

So what are the proper motives for ministry? where do we need to place our heart when it comes to the WHY of ministry? I think they are simple. To Abide, gratitude, and to glorify God. Since we have been accepted and adopted we no longer need to strive to be approved. We simply need to abide in the love and admonition of the Lord. Living in his house tending to the things of God because it pleases Him. Living in gratitude of all that he has done for us without any merit on our part. To simply and humbly glorify God, to set our own personal motives of gain aside, and to willingly lay down our life to prefer our brother, and enemy, before ourselves. To remove any attention from us, only pointing to the Son, that the Son will glorify the Father.

Ministry should be like a good sound man at a concert. When you go to see your favorite band, you hear the music and enjoy the show, but what you don’t realize, what you don’t think about, is the sound man, he is working the board, making sure everything is at the right levels and sounds right. Jesus is the singer and we have the privilege of working the boards. If the sound man makes a mistake, we all hear the feedback, and say, “what in the world is that guy doing”. Wrong motives are like feedback, they draw the attention away from Jesus, and place them on us.

Know that “our calling and election is without regret, and he will continue to perform that which he began in us until its completion”, but for my life, for your life, to be a great concert, free of feedback, we have to yield to him with the right motives in all that we say or do.

All for him, for all he’s done.

Yesterday I had the privilege of teaching Sunday school to the 7 -12 year old’s at my church. They are at a great age for learning and observing. The story we were going over was the story of David being anointed king of Israel 1Samuel 16 1-16. If your not familiar with the story I will recap in my own words. Basically Saul the King is rejected by God because he’s not listening or trusting in God for the way he should rule. Saul is using his own judgment to make decisions and not leaning on God. So God sends Samuel out to anoint the new King that he has chosen. One after his own heart to lead his people.

Well Samuel is a little scared of what will happen to him if he goes off to anoint a new King and Saul finds out, so God tells him to take a cow and make a sacrifice in the town of Bethlehem and invite Jesse to the sacrifice. This gave him a cover story to keep himself save with Saul. So he shows up and invites Jesse as he was instructed by the LORD. Jesse and most of his sons come and are consecrated to be a part of the sacrifice.

As they arrived Samuel sees the oldest of Jesse’s sons “Eliab” who was tall, strong and all the things you would think of when your looking for a King. and Samuel says to himself “this must be the guy” but God answers “Do not look on the outward appearance, I have rejected him as a choice” “Man looks at the outward, but the LORD looks at the heart” so all the sons present at the sacrifice pass by but they too are rejected by GOD. So Samuel asks, “Do you have any other sons that are not here?” and Jesse says, “yeah, I have my youngest son David, an there he is tending the sheep. GOD tells Samuel to have David come and stand before the LORD. when he arrives he is selected and Samuel anoints him with oil (a full rams horn full of oil from head to toe) At that time the Holy Ghost came upon him. Samuel went back to Ramah and David went back to tending sheep for his father.

What’s the point of this story?. There’s a few, first the “Man of God” Samuel was fallible, he was afraid of the King, and didn’t trust GOD to keep him. We all tend to look to other men or our self for confirmation or validation, here Samuel the man of God is not seeking Gods face over what to do but is using his own life experience, God seldom does things the way we think or would do. In fact he uses the things or methods we wouldn’t do, because he wants people to know it was by his hand and not by man. Walking with God means trusting Him for everything, and not taking upon ourselves to figure it out.

Second, Samuel like everyone else, looked to the outside markings and makings of a man, thinking these are what matter when it comes to leadership and wisdom. But in God’s economy, these have little to no value. GOD looks at the heart of a person, those who are lowly in heart, humble in spirit, those are who He calls his sons and daughters. He raises up the weak and the simple to confound the wise of this world.

David was nothing more than a simple 13 year old Sheppard boy who was faithful to the job that he had been given. Not esteemed by his own earthly father, forgotten when the call was to bring forward “All his sons” for the sacrifice. This is important, because maybe you have been passed over time and time again, unloved, overlooked and unwelcome in both your career and family. Take heart, GOD has not forgotten you or abandoned you. David waited until he was 30 years old to become King, that’s 17 years for the wait of the promise. David went through lots of perilous times during that 17 years, Saul spent lots of time and money trying to kill David. Maybe you have lost heart on the promises of GOD. David did too, he lived with the enemy for a period time. But be like David, take stock in what GOD has promised you. His plans are for good and not evil and He has an inheritance for you to share in.

Like the kids in my class this week, I told them don’t let any man tell you what your lot in life is, they being 11,12 and 13 years old are the generation NOW that will take the gospel to the lost, not later. That God can use them now, they need to think and be available to the calling and use of God. Their age does not stand between them and God, He calls and uses us to His good pleasure.

All of us need to be like David, pick up five smooth stones, face your Giants head on. Be lowly of heart, humble in spirit, trusting God that he will complete that which he has called us to do until the day of his appearing. There is nothing GOD cant do with a heart and life that is fully yielded to Him.

Read the rest of 1st and 2nd Samuel and know if GOD can move and use David he can do the same with you. Not many wise, not many noble, not many Mighty in there own or the worlds eyes are called, but those with a humble and contrite spirit, those GOD will do mighty exploits through.

Grace and Peace

Found this great article on common mistakes freelancers make. These same mistakes are made by those doing side work as well. The article on Smashing Magazine is an excellent primer / review for those who work in this arena. visit the article

Sitting back and watching one of the greatest movies ever made. “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” if you’ve never seen it, I highly suggest you rent it. Cary Grant and Mryna Loy have the perfect chemistry together. Just a great way to enjoy the company of my wife and a good cup of coffee.

Its a shame that the film industry today can’t produce movies with he same broad appeal like this one. To many “political” and “Social” causes intertwined into our entertainment. If you need a little relaxation and want to get away from things for just a few hours. I suggest this movie. You’ll love it!

Andrea DiMaio of the Gartner Blog Network, talking about Government Web 2.0 called theUS Navy Social Media Directory: “A Great Idea” nice to know peers notice and like the ideas / execution of your work.

The directory is a very simple, but is powerful demonstration of how you can manage vast amounts of independent entities that are creating and releasing content 24/7, 365, all in a common but diverse mission. Giving them just the right amount of autonomy, while retaining the overall authority over the brand. This also provides them, as well as the public, the validation they need to know the information are getting / giving can be trusted.

Simplistic designs on the surface often remove or hide their complexity within the logic. I have two goals when designing human interface, remove all thought for the end user and use aesthetics that support the core purpose of the content.

simplicity endures.

We took two Davey Awards for both Navy.mil and The Great White Fleet for 2009. The Davy Awards are for small firms that take on big ideas and messages. Thanks International Academy of the Visual Arts for the validation!
About the Davey Awards:
The Davey Awards is an international creative award focused exclusively on honoring outstanding creative work from the best small firms worldwide. The 2009 Davey Awards received over 4,000 entries from ad agencies, interactive agencies, production firms, in-house creative professionals, graphic designers, design firms, and public relations firms. David defeated the mighty Goliath with a big idea and a little rock. That is the sort of thing small firms do every day. The Davey Awards honors the achievement of the “Creative David’s” where strength comes from ideas, intelligence and out-of-the-box thinking, not a “Giant’s” bankroll. Great work is about fresh ideas and exceptional execution, not the biggest budgets. The Davey levels the playing field so entrants compete with only their peers and can win the recognition they
deserve.
Who is behind the Davey:
The Davey is judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA). The IAVA is an invitation-only member-based organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Yahoo!, Estee Lauder, Wired, In-
sight Interactive, The Webby Awards, Passaic Parc, Gershoni, Theory, Polo Ralph Lauren, ADWEEK, BRANDWEEK, Alloy, Coach, iNDELIBLE, MTV, Victoria’s Secret, HBO, the Ellen Degeneres Show, Myspace.com, and many others. See www.iavisarts.org for more information.