Stuff Michael Meeks is doing
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This is my (in)activity log. You might like to visit
Collabora
Productivity a subsidiary of Collabora focusing on LibreOffice support and
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Also if you have the time to read this sort of stuff you could enlighten
yourself by going to Unraveling Wittgenstein's net or if
you are feeling objectionable perhaps here.
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feed.
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legacy html
- NCC in the morning, good speaker from Isleham. Home - got
GCompris installed on the laptop
for H. - unfortunately the touch-pad decided to become very ropey in
mid-mouse-skills-training; bother. H. addicted by the 'code-monkey'
video.
- Sat in the garden - have N. some advanced crawling lessons,
seems quite clued-in to the process when I'm helping sway her weight
from one side to the other.
- Gordon
sermon on
Exodus 20 - "Keeping up with the Joneses" - The 10th commandment.
- Though shall not covet - the most suprising &
troubling commandment ? not in terms of it's relevance. There are
some sins it seems you have to learn as you get older: like racism,
but others like coveting - seem pre-burned in.
- Some of the difficulties with the 10th: compared to all
other near-eastern law-codes - remarkable & illuminating
parallels to many or all of the other commandments. But nothing in
any of the ancient codes that corresponds to the commandment: not
to covet. Some dissonance with others addressing a thought /
feeling not an action.
- The 10 commandments - not the criminal law, no punishments
for a law court, they are the moral law; and hence they condemn
things no court can be aware of. Lots of commands - Honour your
parents: give weight to their counsel - an attitude, similarly
commandments 1 & 10.
- How can God command an attitude ? a feeling ? - God does
not hesitate to do so;
Lev 19 do not seek revenge or bear a grudge ... but love
your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
- Social equality - 10 commandments, apply to everyone
regardless. vs. eg. Hammurabi - whom you murder makes all the
difference in punishment.
- to covet - almost unused today, some homework: not
entirely a negative word: to desire intensely, set your heart upon.
Perfectly right & good to set your heart upon the things
of God. Coveting is not intrinsically sinful. What is - is
setting your heart upon something of another.
- You shall not covet your neighbours house, or his
wife ... or anything that belongs to your neighbour. There are
cases where something appears not to belong to anyone else, but
God hasn't given it to you.
- Why single out this sin ? why not worry, gluttony ...
like those before it; directed against my neighbour. cf.
Rom 13. Coveting hurts our neighbours - and relationships -
in both directions; inherited money ? may be reluctant to share
your joy with others, mindful of this
temptation.
- Coveting can lead to false testimony: cf. Naboth's vineyard,
can lead to theft, or adultery (David & Bathsheba), murder (Cain
& Abel) etc.
- An envelope for the 10 commandments - you shall have no
other God's before me - a parallel to the 1st commandment - same
but for our neighbour.
- God has set eternity in the heart of men - the unbeliever
tries to fill his soul with spiritual junk-food; but when Jesus comes
in - then we discover what true contentment is. The average high
school graduate has seen 350k TV commercials - $60bn/year spent to
convince us that Jesus Christ was wrong:
be on your guard against coveteousness, a man's life does not
consist in the abundance of his possessions
- Most of us recoil from such a sin: I don't envy him - I
just can't stand him. Talking to a friend: a Catholic priest on
the brink of retirement: "Has anyone ever come into your confessional
and confessed to breaking the 10th commandment ?" - never
heard it confessed to; amazing - do we have a blind spot here ?
- "Don't steal": simple, doesn't elaborate everything we might
steal: "Do not covet" - spelled out don't covet your neighbours
house - 'house' == everything he has in this culture: the big
picture - now drill down to the details: - wife etc.
- don't covet your neighbours wife. Or his servants:
few of us have home-help: but their substitutes - coffee-grinders,
washing machines etc. Ox or donkey - just examples - modes
of transportation: his racing bike, brand-new SUV ? don't covet
anything that belongs to your neighbour.
- The remedy - all condemned that we would recognise we're in
a hopeless situation, cf.
Rom 7. Not a call for self-improvement, or a DIY manual for
self-improvement, but a plea to cleave to Christ. If we claim to
be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us
(1John1), but God is faithful & just in
Christ.
My content in this blog and associated images / data under
images/ and data/ directories are (usually)
created by me and (unless obviously labelled otherwise) are licensed under
the public domain, and/or if that doesn't float your boat a CC0
license. I encourage linking back (of course) to help people decide for
themselves, in context, in the battle for ideas, and I love fixes /
improvements / corrections by private mail.
In case it's not painfully obvious: the reflections reflected here are my
own; mine, all mine ! and don't reflect the views of Collabora, SUSE,
Novell, The Document Foundation, Spaghetti Hurlers (International),
or anyone else.
It's also important to realise that I'm not in on the Swedish Conspiracy.
Occasionally people ask for formal photos for conferences
or fun.
Michael Meeks (michael.meeks@collabora.com)
