Standing Tall

Acts 4:1-22

At a well-known company’s national sales convention, a heralded speaker delivered a stirring motivational talk. However, he punctuated his speech with profanity and frequently used God’s name in vain. Finally, a Christian salesman in the audience couldn’t stand it any longer. He rose from his seat, stood on his chair and shouted, “Please leave God out of it.” With that he sat down. The embarrassed speaker cleaned up the rest of his speech. But after the session more people waited in line to shake the hand of the Christian man than that of the speaker.

In your own experience, don’t you find this to be true? In the face of an uncomfortable situation, many people are thinking the same thing. It’s a safe bet that dozens of people in the crowd that day listening to the speaker were squirming in their seats as the profanity rained down. But it took one man to make the stand and speak up, leaving others to wish they would have done the same.

The leaders of the infant church displayed even greater courage than this outspoken salesman. In the face of powerful, influential and educated men, these “ordinary” men stood toe to toe with political and religious forces that sought to silence them. They didn’t cower, give in or give up. Instead, they stood bold and heroic, astonishing their adversaries, who knew only that these men had been with Jesus.

Living a life that pleases God isn’t always easy or popular. Speaking valiantly for Christ and courageously living a righteous life require living out our convictions and commitments as faithful men. Standing tall for what’s right, despite the foe or odds, exacts a high price. In fact, we face war. We can prepare for the battle only by spending time with Jesus—the unshakeable source of courage.

In your life there will be opportunities to speak up and defend what you know to be true. When the next challenge arises, remember that salesman standing on his chair. Resolve today that you will not be like one of those who were content to sit squirming in their seats.

Who do you know that courageously lives a righteous life?

The resilience of Jacob

Day One: The Resilience of Jacob

Gen.32;24-28

"Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day."—Genesis 32:24 (NKJV)

Sometimes a life’s trajectory can be captured in a “moment.” Michael Jordan sinks a shot from the top of the key with three seconds left to advance past the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1989 NBA playoffs…the legend is born. Jordan had hit big shots before then. But he hadn’t yet separated himself from the other greats of his day. That changed from this moment forward. From that point on, Jordan was expected to rise to every occasion and prevail, which he did with ruthless regularity! That moment revealed he was a winner.

We see a similar moment in Jacob’s life in the verse above. In context, Jacob had come to the crisis of his life. After years of running from his brother Esau, from whom he’d stolen the family birthright, he can no longer avoid him. Jacob would be face to face with Esau (as well as a small army of 400 men) the next day, and the weight of what might unfold was pressing down on him! He does what many men do when racked with worry. He isolates himself by sending everyone away for the night.

But it’s in this crucible of crisis that a Man shows up and wrestles with Jacob. We know that this Man was none other than the Lord, Himself! As He is seen to do from time to time in the Old Testament, the Lord appears at a pivotal moment in someone’s life. This moment revealed Jacob’s resiliency. They wrestle all night long! Now, if He wanted to, the Lord could have broken Jacob in half within seconds. But He didn’t, did He? Instead, He allowed the struggle to go on for hours for a greater purpose. And that purpose was to reveal something about Jacob to Jacob.

"Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, 'Let Me go, for the day breaks.' But he said, 'I will not let You go unless You bless me!' So He said to him, 'What is your name?' He said, 'Jacob.' And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”—Genesis 32:25–28 (NKJV)

A lot is going on here, but the essential point is this is Jacob’s “moment.” He went into this encounter one way, and he’s coming out a different man. And notice, resiliency was a key factor in all of this. Had Jacob tapped out after a few seconds, he would have been the same man. But because of Jacob’s resilience, he entered into a prolonged struggle, which brought him to the place of transformation as the Lord broke him down (by putting his hip out of its socket) and built him up (by giving him a new identity). Physically, Jacob was weaker, but spiritually, he had leveled up. Resiliency was a necessary part of this process.

In our own lives, we often quit once we encounter a God-ordained struggle. But as we see with Jacob, the prolonged struggle has a purpose in God’s plan for our lives, and we need resilience to experience it. If we tap out, we miss out on the deeper work of transformation the Lord desires to do in us. We stay Jacob, the heel-catcher, instead of becoming Israel, the God-governed. But by being resilient, we can become all the Lord desires us to be.

 PAUSE: What was Jacob’s “moment” and how did it change him?

 PRACTICE: How does resilience factor into God’s desired work in our lives?

PRAY: Lord, strengthen us, equip us, fortify us, give us the resilience needed to withstand the transformative struggles that You’ve prepared for us.

Back in the saddle with Peppermint 8

Tonight I set up a dual boot between Windows 10 and Peppermint 8 on my Lenovo i3 laptop.

Peppermint 8 ran butter smooth when I booted it from a flash drive and I must say that I am very impressed with it.

Don't have as much time as I used to for Linux experiments, but I really gre tired of Windows 10. During the last month it has downloaded more than 8 GB of updates and every time it connectes to the Internet it maxes out my (ver slow) 2 meg dsl line for a few minutes. What it is doing, I cannot say as automatic updates are blocked, and no apps are open. You can forget about web browsing as Windows wants to do stuff in the background first and does not understand that I might actually want to use my laptop for something I want to do.

Busy installing apps again, looking through the old posts here to remember how to do stuff.

Tomorrow I will try to get conky working again, I really do still love resource monitors and even found a way for my P8 to show me the download speed in the status bar.

Here is to more Linux goodness to come soon (hopefully).

Getting an HP scanner / multi function device to work in Peppermint

I have had a long standing problem scanning documents or photos with Linux (not just Peppermint).

You see, I have a Canon CanoScan LiDe 90, a model that is not supported by Linux. I spent a lot of time reading through forums and even trying a demo version of VueScan. It lists my scanner among the compatible ones, but unfortunately I could not get it to work. Well done for them to have a demo version, because if I had purchased the software and it had not worked - I would have asked for my money back.

I don't scan often, and I am able to use CamScanner on my phone if I have to, but sometimes it is a lot better to scan from a "real" scanner.

If it is a scanner only:

If you have an HP, this should work for you:

Click Menu >> Accessories >> Terminal
Type in: sudo apt-get install hplip-gui
press <ENTER>
Type in your sudo password and press <ENTER>
Press Y if prompted

Once it is installed, click on:
Menu >> Graphics >> Simple Scan

If it is a printer and a scanner:

You will need to install the printer first
Click Menu >> System Tools >> Printers
Click on Add
Select your printer from the list
Follow the prompts to install

A great source for Linux articles

A website that I really enjoy for Linux news and articles is MakeUseOf.

As Linux use grows in popularity, tech websites are motivated to do more articles on Linux.

From apps, to distros to Raspberry Pi stuff - you will find it all here.

How to auto-enable Numlock on a laptop

If you have a laptop with a numeric keypad, you probably want Numlock to stay on. I got tired of pressing the button after every startup and went in search of the menu item for it. I did not find one, I searched further and found the answer:

Install numlockx.

Click on Menu >> Accessories >> Terminal
Type in:
sudo apt-get install numlockx
Press <ENTER>
Type in your sudo password and press <ENTER>
Click on Menu >> Preferences > Default applications for LXSession.
Click on the Autostart tab.
Under Manual autostarted applications, type numlockx in the box and click Add.

This is what LXSession configuration should look like, once you have made the change.

You can reboot to test, but it should work. It works on my Lenovo, but there are people that report that it does not work on their machines.

How to play MKV files on Peppermint Linux

Now I have to give a big shout out and thank you to ConfigX, from the Peppermint forum.

This type of file is a container and a special codec is needed to read it.

Open a Terminal window, click Menu >> Accessories >> Terminal
Type in:
sudo apt-get install lubuntu-restricted-extras
Press <ENTER>
Type in your sudo password and press <ENTER>

Now when trying to play MKV files with VLC, it will work.