Today we read All the Colors of the Earth”, by Sheila Hamanaka. We sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children”, and “Break My Heart”.
Please send your requests and suggestions for songs and stories and any questions or comments to richie.anderson@alvinwestsidechurch.com.
Westside Church of Christ:
http://alvinwestsidechurch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WestsideChurchofChristAlvinTX
http://www.youtube.com/WestsideChurchofChrist
Today we read “Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me”, by Eric Carle. We sing “Seek Ye First”.
Please send your requests and suggestions for songs and stories and any questions or comments to richie.anderson@alvinwestsidechurch.com.
Westside Church of Christ:
http://alvinwestsidechurch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WestsideChurchofChristAlvinTX
http://www.youtube.com/WestsideChurchofChrist
Today we read “The Bravest Worrier”, by Angelique Monet . We sing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”.
Please send your requests and suggestions for songs and stories and any questions or comments to richie.anderson@alvinwestsidechurch.com.
Westside Church of Christ:
http://alvinwestsidechurch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WestsideChurchofChristAlvinTX
http://www.youtube.com/WestsideChurchofChrist
Today we read “The Squire and the Scroll”, by Jennie Bishop and paintings by Preston McDaniels. We sing “This Little Light of Mine” and “Thy Word”.
Please send your requests and suggestions for songs and stories and any questions or comments to richie.anderson@alvinwestsidechurch.com.
Westside Church of Christ:
http://alvinwestsidechurch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WestsideChurchofChristAlvinTX
http://www.youtube.com/WestsideChurchofChrist
Actually, today isn’t “Richie Reads”, it’s “Lilly Reads”. Lilly is from one of our families at Westside Church of Christ, and she did a great job! Thank you Lilly.
Today we read “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse”, by Kevin Henkes. We sing “I’ve got the Joy”.
Please send your requests and suggestions for songs and stories and any questions or comments to richie.anderson@alvinwestsidechurch.com.
Westside Church of Christ:
http://alvinwestsidechurch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WestsideChurchofChristAlvinTX
http://www.youtube.com/WestsideChurchofChrist
Richie:
https://richieanderson.net/
https://www.facebook.com/richie.anderson.9862/
Today we read “If Jesus Came to Visit Me”, by Jill Roman Lord and illustrated by Renee Graef. We sing “Jesus Loves Me” and “We Will Glorify”.
Please send your requests and suggestions for songs and stories and any questions or comments to richie.anderson@alvinwestsidechurch.com.
Westside Church of Christ:
http://alvinwestsidechurch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/WestsideChurchofChristAlvinTX
http://www.youtube.com/WestsideChurchofChrist
Richie:
https://richieanderson.net/
https://www.facebook.com/richie.anderson.9862/
Since our congregation hasn’t been able to meet because of the social distancing suggestions, we have been recording and posting our worship services on YouTube. I also started recording videos for our kiddos who aren’t able to go to their Bible classes. We’ll sing a song or two, read a story, make a very light application, and close with a prayer. Each video has gotten better as I learn more about videography, I may have taken a step backwards once or twice, but forward mostly.
I hope these are useful for you and your families in these strange times of social distancing, and I pray you all stay healthy.
Let me start by saying am not an Apple hater! If you like Apple products, that’s great, keep using them. But they’re just not for me. Having said that, I don’t hate on you, Mr/Mrs Apple user, so please don’t hate on me for my preferences. This series of posts is not intended to bash on Apple, simply to highlight the tools that I use on the platforms that I choose to run.
I’ll start with the tools I use in the office, both at work and at home.
Computer: Dell Inspiron 5765
It’s reasonably priced and has all the power I need for my day to day work. It comes 
installed with Windows 10 Home, which I promptly removed and replaced, but more on that later. At the office I connect it to a larger external monitor as my primary display and the laptop becomes my secondary. It sits on a stand and I also use an external keyboard and mouse. At home I just use it as is, with the addition of a wireless mouse – I dislike touchpads.
Operating System: Xubuntu 16.04 LTS (Linux)
I’m not an Apple user, but I don’t use Windows either. Xubuntu is what’s called a Linux distro (distribution), a “flavor” of Linux. Its actually based on another distro called Ubuntu, but it uses Xfce as its user interface instead of Unity that comes installed with Ubuntu, which I strongly dislike. I find Xubuntu to be extremely light weight and fast. Where Windows has always been clunky and unreliable, your mileage may vary.
UPDATE: I ran into a problem with Xubuntu a while back. The system would boot up and run, but anytime the hard drive was written to the system would crash. If this wasn’t my professional/work computer I may have worked through the issues, but since I need it to be reliable I switched back to Windows 10. It has actually surprised me quite a bit, its a huge improvement over previous versions. All other software I use remains unchanged.
Using Linux does mean having to find replacements for more common applications on Windows or iOS, but that doesn’t mean they’re not as powerful, oftentimes they’re on par if not better than the more mainstream.
Most software on Linux is open source (free) just like the operating system itself is. Again, don’t let that word “free” fool you, they’re still very powerful. There are packages out there that cost, but by and large they will be open source. The developers would certainly appreciate donations if you find their software beneficial.
Bible Software: Xiphos
I like Xiphos because its just a solid performing software with great support from the developer. Its based on the Sword Project’s module system. Most of the library you can access through the Sword Project is public domain, so the materials are older and not as vast as you can get through Logos or Accordance. I have several Bible translation modules installed, all in synced tabs in the main pane of the program. When you move from tab to tab, the tabs stay synced to the same passage. Strong’s Greek and Hebrew displays in a small pane to the lower right on my “standard” translations while I usually have Clarke’s Commentary on the right side bar. You can configure the support panes based on the translation, so when I’m using the ESVS (ESV w/Strong’s Numbers) the right pane shows a larger version of Strong’s Greek/Hebrew instead of Clarke’s.
Productivity: Google Apps / Google Drive
I use Google Apps for pretty much everything document related. Its all based in Google Drive, so everything I write in Google Docs: devotionals, lessons, sermons, papers for school, etc, are all automatically saved in Google Drive. This is awesome when I’m co-teaching a class or work with other folks on material like camp or VBS, because sharing is ridiculously easy in Google Drive. I also use Google Slides for my presentations for Bible classes and sermons. Google Sheets is comparable to Excel. Importing from and exporting to other formats is great in Google Apps as well. I have exported Slides to PPT several times for sermons and only had to make minor tweaks. I generally export to PDF for school work.
There are other office type programs out there than run on the system rather than online in a browser like Google Apps. Libre Office is probably the biggest one.
Graphics: Inkscape and Gimp
Inkscape is a vector drawing program, similar to Adobe Illustrator. I use Inkscape a lot, like, a lot a lot. I use it for my presentations in Google Slides, for graphics on my congregation’s Facebook and Instagram pages, for activity flyers, for the graphics on this site, and more.
Gimp is a raster drawing program, similar to Adobe Photoshop. Most of what graphics work I do is in Inkscape, but it doesn’t print well, so I usually end up exporting to PNG from Inkscape and opening it in Gimp to print. Gimp is also far better for editing photos than Inkscape.
Desktop Publishing: Scribus
Scribus is a desktop publishing program, similar to Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher. I have been able to do most printing from Gimp, but I did design our new contact/connection cards in Scribus. I just exported them to PDF and sent them to the local printer and everything turned out great.
Those are really the big ones you’d have to get used to in a switch to a Linux environment. There are other things I use that are either the same or very similar to Windows/iOS, or are Linux specific tools that I prefer to use over the ones included in the distro I’m using.
Here are some odds and ends I use that should be familiar to most people: Google Chrome, Firefox (occasionally), Thunderbird (email), Google Earth, Audacity, VLC, FileZilla (FTP), etc.
Next time we’ll look at mobile devices and apps.
That’s a good question isn’t it? Who did raise Job? Hmm…
We know already that Job was a Godly and righteous man. God’s Word says that he was blameless (Job 1:8)! Can you imagine God calling you, or the child you raised, blameless? But how did Job get to be that way? It’s possible that he came to knowledge of God through study. Or maybe one of his “good” friends taught him. But Job 31:16-18 tells us something about his upbringing:
If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,
or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
or have eaten my morsel alone,
and the fatherless has not eaten of it
(for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father,
and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow)
You see, Job’s parents were servants before him. He witnessed his parents helping orphans and widows, just as we are told by James what true religion is (James 1:27).
So how did Job’s parents teach him to be such a good man? Deuteronomy 6:6-9 springs immediately to mind:
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
I can’t say for certain, but I would imagine that this is how Job learned, and this is how we are to teach our children. Notice that this passage doesn’t say to let Sunday school teachers teach your children. Neither does it say let the youth minister raise your children. No, the Bible says for YOU raise them (Ephesians 6:4). It says to teach by your example. How do you talk about God? Do you talk about God? Do you pray in the morning, before meals, at bed time? Do your children see you studying the Bible? This passage says they should literally see the Word everywhere!
Now that I’m done stomping all over my own toes, I pray that you have an amazing day.
All throughout the Bible, people have tried to hide their sins from God. From the very beginning of creation, Adam and Eve tried to hide that they had eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:8). Then we see their son, Cain, killing his brother and sidestepping God’s questions (Genesis 4:9). David, the man after God’s own heart, tried to cover his sin by having the husband of the woman he committed adultery with killed (2 Samuel 11:14-17)! God saw through all of these people and their lies, and they all received different punishments. From hard work and painful childbirth, to wandering the earth, to the death of an innocent.
As if these weren’t bad enough, there are two dynamic duos in the Bible that lost their lives as a result of their attempted deceits. First up, Nadab and Abihu. They were sons of Aaron, the brother of Moses and High Priest. They offered an offering of fire that God did not approve. They were then stuck dead with fire for it (Leviticus 10:2).
Next up, Ananias and Sapphira. They were members of the early Church. They sold a field they owned and gave part of their profits to the Church. This would have been a great thing, if only they hadn’t lied about it! They told the apostles that they gave 100% of the profit to the Lord, but they held back a portion for themselves. When questioned by Peter, Ananias was struck dead on the spot. When Sapphira told the same lie, she too was struck dead (Acts 5:1-11).
This message isn’t very uplifting or comforting, but this message is very important: God can see in the dark! Hiding our sins from the world, from our loved ones, from our brothers and sisters in Christ, from those who look up to us as an example does not work on God! He knows what’s in our hearts (Psalm 44:20-21, Luke 16:15, Acts 15:8)!
While God does indeed see everything we do in the dark, John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Now that is comforting!
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