Love is: 1 Corinthians 13: Am I?

I am currently reading through several books amongst others Alpha Questions for Life by Nicky Gumbel.

In this book Gumbel tells the story of a woman that promised herself to read 1 Corinthians 13 everyday, in which Paul explains so beautifully what love and what the importance of love is.

Love

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Time and time I am captured amazed by the beauty of these writings.

Now the lady Nicky Gumbel speaks about decides that she would replace ‘love’ by ‘I’ and stop as soon as she came across a description she did not make. Hopefully she would one day be able to tick off all the descriptions.

I have found on many occasions that replacing the Bible really starts to speak to me when I make things personal. As an example,read the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 v1-17) and see how they provide you with a clear picture on what you will become or aim to become if you replace the “you” with “I”.

• I shall have no other Gods before Him
• I will not make or have idols
• I will not misuse his name
• I will remember the Sabbath by keeping it Holy and will not work on it.
• I will honor my father and mother
• I will not murder
• I will not commit adultery
• I will not steal
• I will not give false testimony
• I will not covet

What a beautiful promise he commandments become.

Or try this with the Lord’s prayer of Matthew 6:  9-13.

My Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name (by me)
your Kingdom come,
I will do your will as your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give me today my daily bread.
Forgive me my debts,
as I have also forgiven my debtors.
And lead me not into temptation,
but deliver me from the evil one,
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

Amen

To me the prayer speaks differently when the generic “us” is replaced by I and all of a sudden I commit myself very personally to doing His will, all of a sudden the confession of sin becomes personal and is no longer a vague ‘us’ but a personal acknowledgment that I am a sinner that needs forgiveness, all of a sudden God‘s provision becomes very personal and all of a sudden it is very clear that “we” are not just tempted by evil and in need of deliverance in general as a humanity but personally.

And so it is with the sixteen descriptions of love in 1 Corinthians 13 when you make them personal. What a guide for life they become:

1. I am patient
2. I am kind
3. I do not envy
4. I do not boast
5. I am not proud
6. I am not rude
7. I am not self-seeking
8. I am not easily angered
9. I keep no record of wrongs
10. I do not delight in evil
11. rejoice in truth
12. I always protect
13. I always trust
14. I always hope
15. I always persevere
16. I never fail

There is only one sad things about this checklist: So far I never made it past point one: love is patient. What about you?

Blue Bolero by Chris Standring

Blue Bolero by Chris Standring.

It has been my ambition for many years to record an album with an orchestra. With the recent demise of all jazz record labels I figured that if I was going to make this happen I would have to grab the bull by the horns. So I did. I also wanted to take a major left turn musically on this album and as soon as I started messing around with orchestral samples, the drive to realize this project became much bigger than me.

The entire album is extremely cinematic and represents, in a somewhat vague fashion, the journey I took as a musically driven youngster to the person I am today, still musically driven but just that little bit older. From my upbringing on a farm outside Aylesbury in England, making the move to London and finally the big move to Los Angeles, California, Blue Bolero is kind of the movie of my life so far.

Not wishing to make myself sound too dark, windswept and let’s face it, infernally annoying, the concept of this somewhat autobiographical project certainly was meant to be fun, but with musical elements that reflect my musical training, influences and cultural surroundings. This is something I have certainly not entertained on previous albums. The music here is based around several themes and represents a very reflective mood throughout. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have.

All the best!

Photo Journal: Spring as a Kingdom Methaphor

It may be me but spring seems to liven me up. Realizing that all day you have not used the log burner (which is, with the current price of wood a joy in itself), playing outside under the stars on my good old “stekkie” which is the Dutch word for a favorite little spot, reading the Bible in the morning sun, I just love getting out of winter.

I never thought about it like this before but spring is actually quite metaphoric for Jesus’ ministry. In His times he did what He did, His Father‘s will and with that he gave us a taste of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom already here an a Kingdom to come. And he told his disciples that they would be doing even greater things so as make disciples of all nations.

When looking around you, it is not too hard to notice the beauty of the fresh young green, the spring flowers that are coming out. All I can do is be amazed not just about the beauty but also the impact, it so makes you realize that something even better is about to arrive.

Just look at the sheer beauty of what is already there.

All without a doubt a doubt glorious and magnificent. Is it not amazing to see a sleeping or so you wish dead world come alive again.

But at the same time is it not even better to know that it will all be back to life again so we can enjoy it in its full glory.

I can’t wait for it to be summer.

Windows DLL load hijacking exploits go wild – Computerworld

Computerworld – Less than 24 hours after Microsoft said it couldn’t patch Windows to fix a systemic problem, attack code appeared Tuesday to exploit the company’s software.

Also on Tuesday, a security firm that’s been researching the issue for the past nine months said 41 of Microsoft’s own programs can be remotely exploited using DLL load hijacking, and it named two of them.

On Monday, Microsoft confirmed reports of unpatched — or zero-day — vulnerabilities in a large number of Windows programs, then published a tool it said would block known attacks. At the same time, the company said it would not patch Windows because doing so would cripple existing applications.

Microsoft also declined to reveal whether any of its own applications contain bugs that attackers could exploit, saying only that it is investigating.

Many Windows applications don’t call code libraries — dubbed “dynamic-link library,” or “DLL” — using the full path name, but instead use only the file name, giving hackers wiggle room that they can then exploit by tricking an application into loading a malicious file with the same name as a required DLL.

If attackers can dupe users into visiting malicious Web sites or remote shares, or get them to plug in a USB drive — and in some cases con them into opening a file — they can hijack a PC and plant malware on it.

By Tuesday, at least four exploits of what some call “binary planting” attacks — and what others dub “DLL load hijacking” attacks — had been published to a well-known hacker site. Two of the exploits targeted Microsoft-made software, including PowerPoint 2010, the presentation application in Office 2010, and Windows Live Mail, a free e-mail client bundled with Vista but available as a free download for Windows 7 customers.

Other exploits aimed at leveraging DLL load hijacking bugs in uTorrent and Wireshark, a BitTorrent client and network protocol analyzer, respectively.

At the same time, a Slovenian security company claimed that it reported bugs in two Microsoft-made programs last March.

“We’re going to publish a list of the vulnerable apps we found sometime soon,” said Mitja Kolsek, the CEO of Acros Security. “However, since HD Moore’s tool kit is already being used for finding vulnerable apps and at this point hundreds of good and bad guys already know about it, I can say that the two we fully disclosed to Microsoft were in Windows Address Book/Windows Contacts and Windows Program Manager Group Converter.”

HD Moore is the U.S. researcher who kicked off a small wave of DLL load hijacking reports last week when announced he had found 40 vulnerable Windows applications. On Monday, Moore published an auditing tool that others can use to detect vulnerable software. When combined with an exploit added that same day to Metasploit, the open-source hacking tool kit that Moore authored, the tool’s results produce what he called a “point-and-shoot” attack.

All four of the exploits that went public Tuesday appear to be based on Moore’s Metasploit attack code.

Read the rest via Windows DLL load hijacking exploits go wild – Computerworld.

More ways to share (via WordPress.com News)

What a cool extension. Love it. Used to have an add button but this works just as easy.

Starting today there is a new way for your readers to share the posts on your blog with friends. This feature allows you to add sharing functionality from a range of services to the bottom of your blog posts. Here's a quick video introduction: To begin with we have the following services for you to choose from. If there is a service missing from the list, don't worry! You can add your own custom services as well. Facebook … Read More

via WordPress.com News