Even though I am fully committed to preparation for when I'll have to stop using computers, I still read a handful of tech news sites. It's part of watching out for trouble until the computer apocalypse hits. One of the tech news aggregators I read is Slashdot. Most of the time just a scan of the headlines is all I really need. On occasion they'll have something worth pursuing in linked articles. Very few of those linked articles are fair and balanced, so I find it useful to read the comments posted on Slashdot about those linked articles. The task of wading through the highly partisan garbage used to be real chore, but these days I can find some very insightful comments.

Today I found this item about Microsoft sneaking a new "feature" into Windows 11: You will no longer be able to log into your computer without logging simultaneously into your MS account. You can no longer have a local user account on your own computer; it must be linked live to a Microsoft "Windows Live" account. In other words, tracking your use of your computer is now mandatory. It will be the same as your iOS or Android device, in that you cannot use them without being logged in for snooping.

So I turned to the comments. One noted that MS had already admitted they are moving to a subscription account system for Windows itself. I recall reading that somewhere, too. Somewhere down the road, the MS accounts will cease to be free, and you must be paid up just to use your computer. Another comment mentioned that MS has already shut down a few accounts because they didn't like the content the user was housing on their accounts. You see where this is going. Another comment noted:

Quote:My complaint with this is can that online account be taken or disabled if I'm not politically correct enough?

You guys are not seeing the full picture here. The next step is to start prohibiting who can do this registration or retroactively expire them which now means you can literally be banned from your computer.

Lake Erie is shaking – Is this enhanced geological activity in the area responsible for mysterious deep water temperature rising in the Great Lakes?

Home (Pittsburgh) doesn't have any seismic activity...our big thing is flooding, because of the three rivers and all of the hills: mudslides, ice, flooded streets, etc. Erie is 2-3 hours from here, the Ohio border is much closer, so it's weird to hear and read talk of increased earthquake activity happening in the area.

My wife Jeane and I both came down with "Covid" early in January 2022.  I had to take her to the hospital in mid-January as she had a horrible cough that I was worried could be Pneumonia.  The hospital ER diagnosed her with "Covid Pneumonia" but released her with a steroid inhaler as her oxygen level was staying above 95.  For that I give praise to the Lord.  The 6 days after her release from the hospital is when I began to spiral down with massive fatigue and severe GI issues.  I connected with a functional medicine doctor in early February and we have both been in for several lab tests and are awaiting the results.  In the mean time I had a severe attack of Vertigo along with a major Anxiety attack with very high blood pressure readings for over 3 hours (which I have had a past history of but have not had one in several years).  I have connected with a NeuroHealth functional medicine DC who I will be meeting with on Thursday.

All that to say I am praising God that neither of us had to be hospitalized and potentially treated with conventional medicine's "life threatening" treatments.  Also praising God for the bit of healing we are experiencing so far. Please pray with me that the doctor's we are seeing will be guided by the Holy Spirit to help us on our healing journey and that Satan would be bound from further attacks on our health.  In the end we will give all the Glory to God for healing us.

THANKS!!  -  Dave

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

What is slander all entail? Like if 2 family members are discussing( or rehashing) the hateful verbal attack of another family member and how to resolve that matter, for example, is this slander? Since my number one exercise is running from sin and my desire is to be destroyer of sin, I have concerns with understanding this sin.

John skips over most of Jesus' northern ministry. It's covered in the first verse here. On the other hand, he covers the first reappearance in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles. Luke notes in his chronology that Jesus knew He was approaching His final months of earthly ministry and mentions one of those numerous times when someone tried to join His crew (Luke 9:51-62). It was always the same answer He gave to others, that they had no idea what they would be getting into.

But what John does cover is often cryptic because it is so very Hebraic. Again, Matthew seeks to address Jewish converts, Mark echoes Peter's teachings while in Rome, and Luke is distinctly Gentile and academic in his approach. But John is very mystical, often leaving unstated some of the implications of things, and it's quite likely this is how Jesus talked on many occasions. Readers need to pay attention and read between the lines.

Bear in mind that just a few chapters prior to this, John recounts how Jesus healed the man by the Pool of Bethesda. There was quite a ruckus because Jesus told the man to carry away his bedroll on the Sabbath. So far as we know, this is pretty much the most recent miracle Jesus performed in Jerusalem. It's been at least a year, and perhaps two, but it remains a hot issue in the minds of the Jewish leadership connected to the Temple, and is the reason they have been seeking to arrest and execute Jesus.

Another thing of note is that the folks living in Jerusalem know this. However, the Diaspora Jews in town for the feast were generally quite unaware of this whole thing, except that the officials were looking for Him. They'd surely heard of Jesus, but weren't part of in-crowd in the city keeping track of all the political news and gossip. The Sanhedrin's death warrant for Jesus was generally hush-hush.

Back in Galilee, Jesus is at home with His family. His younger siblings harass Him about going to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. They don't believe He is the Messiah, and seem rather cynical about His ministry. Wouldn't the Messiah want to be famous and rally His followers?

It probably makes more sense to view Him here as being patient and perhaps even a little amused at their efforts to provoke Him. It's clear they don't understand His teaching. He tells them it's not the right moment to provoke a conflict by declaring Himself the Messiah. There's no doubt it would be a conflict, since the current leadership detests Him. But His siblings were safe; nothing He said or did implicated them. On the other hand, they would likely get Him in trouble if He traveled with them. He appeared to stay behind when they left for the feast.

Then, once they were well down the road, He traveled privately, avoiding the crowds, likely traveling cross-country. John tells us the Jewish leadership were keeping an eye out for Him. The visitors in the city were arguing about whether He was even a good guy, while others insisted He was just a huckster. They didn't know the Sanhedrin had a death warrant for Him, but it was obvious that just mentioning Him too loudly would get you detained and questioned.

About half-way through the eight days of the feast, Jesus suddenly appeared in the Temple grounds teaching. The Jewish leadership first noted that He was eloquent and obviously very knowledgeable, yet they knew He had never attended any of the important rabbinical schools. He wasn't quoting any of the experts. At some point, Jesus turned to address them.

He asserted that what He taught was not just His own thesis. Unlike the rabbinical heavyweights, He wasn't trying to distinguish Himself by coming up with some brilliant new ideas. He was simply the messenger for God. It doesn't require exposure to all these intellectual notions to serve the Lord. Anyone who is truly committed to the Father's will could easily recognize whether Jesus' teaching comes from God or just another ambitious rabbi chasing fame. The Father doesn't sponsor conceited buffoons.

Funny thing: Moses gave them the Covenant. It's not that hard to understand and obey. Yet the leadership were talking all around the Law and finding every excuse in human imagination for not obeying it. How could they dare presume to issue a death warrant for Him, so obviously contrary to that Law?

At this the visitors from out of town reacted. Was Jesus crazy? Of course it would be illegal! Who would dare such a thing? Surely the Sanhedrin wouldn't stoop so low.

Jesus countered that the Sanhedrin were, indeed, that corrupt. On His last visit He healed a man on the Sabbath at the Pool of Bethesda. The crowd knew about that one and admired it. But they didn't consider the way the Law actually was supposed to work. If the Sanhedrin could rule that circumcision took priority over Sabbath observance, then there were other things that would also qualify for exemption. Indeed, the Sanhedrin had long ruled that midwifery on the Sabbath was also acceptable, since it was otherwise too likely fatal for the mother and child. And what of healing a man who had suffered many years crippled? Carrying his bed home was a reasonable accommodation for a man whose life was restored.

Thus, Jesus condemned the legalistic nitpicking of the rabbinical class. They were trying to protect the Law from the people, instead of serving the God of the people according to His declared priorities. The point of the Sabbath was not to make life difficult, but to bring about a day in each week where priorities were reset. It wasn't a sin to do charitable work; it was a sin to act like it was any other day of the week. Even the priests understood that their Sabbath labor was for the Lord, not for themselves.

At this point, some of the city folks wondered how it was Jesus had not yet been arrested already. He spoke boldly and shut up the Jewish officials present. The locals wondered if they had changed their mind about their death warrant, having decided that Jesus was the Messiah, after all. Nah! Couldn't be; Jesus was just an ordinary man. They had been taught that Messiah would not have a common childhood, but would just appear out of the blue.

It must have exasperated Jesus, as He started yelling. It was sarcasm. Oh, sure -- they knew His human background and all about Him. But they refused to recognize their own God. They were hopelessly incapable of discerning the hand of the God who called their nation and gave them His Laws. One thing was for sure; Jesus knew the Father. He couldn't do otherwise, because the Father had anointed and commissioned Him. They were so smug, but would not have recognized Jehovah if He were standing there.

They were filled with indignation, and really wanted to grab Him and shut Him up. Yet, it wasn't God's time for Jesus to suffer, so God didn't let them move against Him. They were clearly restrained by some external power. That alone caused even more people to embrace His teaching. Would the Messiah do anything more marvelous than that?

Prayer for my dad, William, who will be having surgery Friday for removal of cancer deeply in his forehead. Also prayer for Gods will for or against reconciliation with my mom, we have been estranged many years, allow me to add the estrangement has ended alot of sin. May the Father forgive me. Thank you

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

My former ebook publisher is more or less gone. I was just informed officially that Smashwords has merged with Draft2Digital. To be more precise, the latter has purchased the former. What's really strange is that Draft2Digital is right here in OKC. All the staff and assets from Smashwords will move from CA to OKC. The HQ is a big bank building up on what we call the "Broadway Extension" at Britton Road, somewhere inside the Oklahoma Fidelity Bank building.

Not that it changes too much, I suppose, but it's just a weird thing to see. So far as I can tell, all my books will continue to be available at the old Smashwords website. Meanwhile, there is a new beta service under Draft2Digital that allows for print-on-demand of books, too. The change is supposed to be finalized in March of this year. I'm still looking into the details.

We should be like the Master Shepherd, eager to reclaim someone who has been led astray by whatever means. Jesus continues in that vein a little longer. Keep in mind that all His comments are under the Covenant of Moses. He is concerned in this context with the lost sheep of Israel.

If your covenant brother steps outside the covenant boundaries against you, try to work it out in private. The point is not that you are offended, but that he has offended God and risked harming shalom. You are the agent of redemption; you want him back in the flock. If you succeed in helping him recover, it's a good thing that you have rescued your brother.

If he resists your appeal, get a reliable covenant brother or two to go with you. He's on dangerous ground and you need support to witness against him if he refuses to come back inside the covenant boundaries. Should that be the case, bring the matter before your local synagogue. If he will not yield to that body, officially declare him outside the Covenant and a predator to the flock.

When you follow this procedure, the Lord will honor your decisions and remove him from the community shalom. He loses his divine covering. It is this approach, where two or three come together in the Lord's Presence seeking His covenant shalom, that explains how our prayers for anything work. It's all about the Covenant; our Father inhabits the Covenant.

This didn't sound like the stuff Peter had heard from the Pharisees, so He asked Jesus about one of their teachings. They had maintained for a long time that you should forgive your covenant brother up to three times, citing Amos 1 where God says He would forgive Israel's enemies three times. Actually, God said He would add an extra count of four just to make sure they knew He was patient. As usual, the Scribes and Pharisees were nit-picking without understanding the context. They reasoned that after three failures, you could ostracize the sinner, even take him to court over it.

Peter thought perhaps he should rise above that by suggesting seven times. How many times do we chase down the lost sheep who keeps wandering off? Jesus said that, if one is going to count, then seventy times seven is a better number. He then launched into a parable to indicate that this is asking the wrong question.

Consider a king who would audit those who managed his property. Most kings didn't have time to worry much about their personal property, what with politics and wars and such. So he would farm it out to various nobles, whomever he considered sufficiently capable, allowing them to keep a cut. But obviously this king was sensing the pinch of mismanagement and wanted to identify the sources of loss. Among his noble stewards was one who had mismanaged things so badly that he was on the hook for a catastrophic amount. Calculations vary but it's in the range of 10,000,000 days' wages.

It's quite doubtful the king in question could recover that massive amount, but there wasn't much he could do except order the man sold into slavery, with his family, and all his possessions liquidated. Well, the man begged for mercy and got it. Not only did he escape his just penalty, but he was forgiven the debt entirely. There's no doubt he lost his favored position, but at least he was free to get on with his life as just another noble in the king's domain.

This man promptly went out and hunted down another, but lower ranking noble, who owed him a mere 100 days' wages. This debtor was down on his luck and didn't have it on hand. But the recently forgiven noble was totally without mercy, and had his debtor arrested on the spot. The debtor was then forced to work at slave labor until he worked off that amount, plus a premium for room, board and management fees.

Having seen all of this, some of the other nobles went back and reported to the king how the forgiven man was unforgiving. The king called him back in and castigated him. Since the debt could not be reinstated, the king fined the man directly in the same amount for a criminal offense. The man was unable to pay the fine. Instead of a debtor's prison, scholars believe he was forced to serve as a whipping boy of sorts, a living punching bag for soldiers in training. (He would wear armor against blunted weapons, but it was extremely taxing physically.)

The point here is that we owe God more than we could ever repay in terms of sin. We all deserve a short miserable life and a lingering painful death. Everything you are and everything you have is already forfeited to the Father. He is merciful and established a covenant by which He forgives and grants us shalom. He welcomes us into His family and handles us like valuable sheep that are prone to wander off. Don't bother with keeping an account for those who disappoint you in life. With all that God has absorbed on your behalf, you can afford to go easy on your covenant brothers. As long as they seek your forgiveness, they should have it.

Edit: I left off some zeros in the estimate of what the steward owed the king.