I know a lot of my friends here use only Window Spaces for interacting with other people on the internet. That's cool. However, if you're looking for a place to share your Christian beliefs, debate theological issues, or just have a little fun, you're invited to join me and my friends at the Servant Chat forums. The URL is http://realservantchat.proboards54.com . Anyone can view the posts as a visitor, but if you'd like to participate by posting you have to sign up as a member. Right now we have a very small membership roster, but we hope to grow into a larger family and community. Check it out.

     I don't agree with everything presented by John Calvin, but I was reading an article in Christianity Today in which some of Calvin's writing is paraphrased by Knox Bruce-Beza. The following is paraphrased from The Institutes of the Christian Religion and other writings by John Calvin.

 

     The ascended Christ reigns over the church and all societies but in different ways. In truth, the only "Christian nation" is the body of Christ as it is dispersed throughout all peoples and in all times. Confusion on this point has resulted in far-reaching consequences.

     At the present time, we are under a two-fold government, so that we do not (as commonly happens) unwisely mingle these two, which have a completely different nature. Christ's spiritual kingdom and the civic jurisdiction are things completely distinct. For now Christ's visible rule is a kingdom of grace, advancing through the proclamation of the gospel: the preaching of the Word and the sacrements. In this kingdom, enemies of God are made heirs, strangers and aliens are bound together in a communion deeper than any social bond, and the gospel conquers the earth through the Word and the Spirit rather than through secular powers and cultural labors. Only when Christ returns will he reign in a kingdom of glory, as the realms of this age are made subservient to his will.

     These kingdoms are distinguished but should not be opposed. We are citizens of two cities: one temporary and the other eternal. In the one, we are made neighbors, in a society that can never be perfected, but in which we love and serve our fellows with our common gifts. In the other, we are made co-heirs with Christ in a communion of saints, sharing all heavenly blessings forever.

 

     I believe this relates exactly the way things are and should be. God reigns over the entire world even if most of the inhabitants don't believe in God. Even the United States isn't truely a Christian nation, instead it's a nation in which some of God's children reside. By reaching out to those who don't know God, we can lead them to the way of salvation. No one has ever been saved by the law, whether God's or man's, and they never will be. As Calvin says, "The gospel conquers the earth through the Word and the Spirit rather than through secular powers and cultural labors."  The attempt to change people's behaviors through laws will always fail. The only way to succeed in decreasing the crime and harm done to others is to teach people God's truths and show them that living by his will is the only way to improve society. We change people through love, not force.

     One of my favorite things to do with a little down time is to play detective / mystery games on my computer. I've already played all of the CSI games. Recently, I've enjoyed the Agatha Christie games. I finished "And Then There Were None" and "Murder on the Orient Express". Currently, I'm working my way through "Evil Under the Sun", although I hit a small snag in that one. It seems one area of the game doesn't work properly on some computers without what is known as a game patch. I'm still waiting to hear back from the company to find out where I need to go to download that and, hopefully, be able to finish the game.

     I've been asked why I play those games. The first answer I give is because they give me a chance to exercise my brain. I get to do that when I'm writing, but there are times it's nice to sit back and play through a mystery someone else has taken the time to create. There seem to always be some parts of the games that make no sense, at least to me, like when the character has to do something which in no way relates to solving the crime ... again, that's just my opinion. And then there are some games which present scantily clad women or contain a lot of cussing which really has nothing to do with the game at all. Those I can overlook as long as the game is interesting, challenging, and has a good plot following a logical course and a surprising final solution.

     I've seen a few games at the local stores which I'll probably get around to buying and playing. The ones in which the player gets to take on the role of Sherlock Holmes all look very interesting. There's also one called "Jack the Ripper" I'm almost sure I'll get because I researched that case for my second novel (which is now complete) and I just think it would be fun to "solve" that case. There are some places online selling some of the older games, but I haven't seen too many detective / mystery games other than the ones I've already played or the seemingly endless Nancy Drew series (of which I've played a few).

     I'm not sure how many of my friends and visitors play these types of computer games. If any of you have played any, please tell me which ones or make suggestions. I'm not looking for any of those hidden object games ... it makes no sense to me to go from place to place collecting useless objects and after fifteen or twenty rounds of that be told I solved the mystery. And free online games or downloads are out of the question. I picked up a "worm" at one of those sites and had to completely reload my computer. What I'm searching for are the games I can buy on CD or DVD to play on my PC. I can probably find some of the older games at Amazon so even those suggestions are appreciated.

     Hi everyone. I'm just taking enough time to let you know I propbably won't make it to anyone's spaces for a few days. I got a worm on my computer and had to redo the whole system. I'm in the process of getting all my programs and files back on my hard drive.

 

NT AUTHORITY / SYSTEM

     If you start getting a message that the service and app control has to restart your computer and does so in 60 seconds, you probably have the worm. Your computer will restart, but you'll probably have to go through that five or six times before it stays on for any period of time. There are several versions of the worm which causes this problem. The one on my system was Rustock.AN . Some virus scanners will find it and remove parts of it, but it will come back or just keep working anyway. If you know a computer geek, they can probably find all the bits and pieces and get it off your system. If you don't know anyone to fix it your only alternative is to do what I did. Save all your important stuff to disks or memory sticks and then do a complete system restore. The bad part is, you're starting from scratch and have to reinstall everything.

 

     I don't know where I got the stupid worm, but I did. I hope no one else does.