Where do you want to go for eternity?

R

Rick C. Hodgin

Guest
I saw this video today on the ComputerHistory channel on YouTube. The man
cited, David Cutler, has been a pioneer in several low-level aspects of
computer development while at Microsoft, and before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN0H4Lb9Lfs

I posted a comment immediately after watching the video. However, the more
I thought about it the more I realized there's something larger that needs
to take place here.

I want to begin to educate our technology sector away from that which is
their focus today (money), to instead begin thinking of that which should
be their focus (God, and all of God's people world-wide).

I have expanded my comment here, and I will continue to polish and edit
it as I give it more thought:

-----

May.24.2016

It's hard for me to appreciate any success for Microsoft, or for any of
the people at Microsoft. They have money-driven goals and make choices
based on money-ends, rather than right-ends -- which are (to be clear)
people-ends.

As a result of Windows 3.1 sales, for example, OS/2 (an all ways a
superior operating system) was abandoned by Microsoft after years of
development so they could pursue Windows NT (because they could make
more money selling Windows than pursuing the better product).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DAojx2Hgec&t=38m50s

Money drove Microsoft's decision, and later drove them to also move in
anti-competitive ways for which they were found guilty in courts of law
around the world, ultimately ordered to pay record fines. And even upon
receiving the multiple legal findings, they still professed innocence
and did not believe they were doing anything wrong, or had done anything
wrong.

No apologies. No voluntary changes.

-----
People will say Microsoft's behavior was "just business," and they're
right. It was just business. But business goals are focused predomin-
ately around money factors, and these goals ultimately harm real and
creative people world-wide. Business goals seek to lock in solutions
which isolate and segregate us into the channels required by their
goals, so that we do not have free room to move, but are able to move
within a confined arena only. While we might receive products which
allow us to move, it's akin to being in a type of prison where we can
harvest trees, build homes, raise animals and families to our heart's
content, but we're still in the prison. If we want to move to another
place it's not possible because we're locked in.

This inevitably results in us receiving wholly inferior products because
there is no equal footing given to competition, such that even in 2016
we still don't have the capabilities OS/2 had back in the 1990s in
released products, nor do we have many of the alternative products that
we could've had were Microsoft's anti-competitive practices not in play,
such that money was not the driving goal (office suites, business
software, browsers, and other models, for example).

Microsoft has harmed people with their releases. And while the people
who have contributed to Microsoft's "success" are no doubt talented
people, their goals and loyalties have been to Microsoft and its money
ends, rather than "in serving people" ends, and that needs to change.

And Microsoft is not alone in this. Business in this world today is
geared toward maximizing profit. You rarely hear, for example, of a
company willing to sacrifice half of its net increase in sales to hire
more people, or give them better health care, or increase their family
time, etc. You typically hear it going the other way because money is
the goal, not people.

And to be clear: having money-based goals makes all of the effort
involved just flatly wrong because those goals ultimately harm people.
People's needs and "rightness needs" are always sacrificed in cases
where an additional dollar can be gained by sacrificing them, and
that needs to change.

-----
Each of us is part of a purpose here on this planet. We are part of a
system that was created by God with right ends (honoring Him, and loving
one another in the world He gave us). That purpose has been usurped by
sin, and that sin at work in men. It has given us this world we live in
where people everywhere are rising up and hating and fighting other
people. People who, had they been born in a different place, could've
grown up in your community, been raised with your children, gone to
school and social functions with your family, so that you would've been
neighbors, rather than enemies.

Everything that's wrong with this world stems from the same single
source: sin, and all that accompanies it.

Sin is the problem.
Jesus Christ is the cure ... because He literally takes sin away.

-----
The truth is we were created to honor God with our lives. We were made
in His very image and likeness, and He made us different than all of the
rest of creation. Even apart from the angels, for not one of them will
be forgiven for their sin against God, but all of us have the opportunity
to be forgiven if we will accept Jesus Christ, allowing Him to become
the Lord of our life, the One who guides us and leads us. He will take
away our sin and restore us to that which mankind had before the fall:
eternal life, a spirit that's alive, and real hope and a future.

-----
The goals of this world's business models, philosophy models, and
economic models at large, all need to change. And that change needs
to be center-focused around each of us developing a close, personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, and then walking under His guidance.

Jesus advocates loving one another. It's actually a new command He
gave us (John 13:34).

Jesus advocates peace, and says that peacemakers will be called the
children of God.

Jesus advocates sharing your excess with the one who does not have.

Jesus advocates seeking after righteousness as food and water.

You can read about all of these yourself:

http://biblehub.com/kjv/matthew/5.htm
http://biblehub.com/kjv/matthew/6.htm
http://biblehub.com/kjv/matthew/7.htm

And you can see the love of God manifest in the gospel of John (put
yourself in the position of John, recognizing that as He loved John,
so He also loves you):

http://biblehub.com/kjv/john/1.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hexhw3wWmE

-----
This world teaches us incorrectly about who Jesus Christ is, what He
expects from us, and how we must come to Him. Jesus is looking for
those who are broken, flawed, who know they are sinners and yet don't
want to be. He knows you can't do it on your own, and He promises
those who seek Him that you don't have to do it on your own, but to
simply come to Him as you are (broken, flawed, in sin), and ask Him
to forgive you, and to help you, and He will.

He receives all who come to Him, and will never turn any who come to
Him away. No matter your past. No matter you sin. No matter those
worst things you've ever done. Jesus knows all about it, and He loves
you anyway and will save you despite those things:

http://www.libsf.org/misc/love.html

-----
Our goals on this planet are to better one another's lives, beginning
in all things with a trust and reliance upon God. And whether we are
willing to admit it to ourselves or not, He has been with us every day
of our lives here upon this Earth. We have ignored Him, but He has
remained. We have sinned against Him, but He has been there watching
over us. We have turned our back on Him and blasphemed everything
about Him and His due Glory, and yet He continues to love us, just as
a parent would love their child even if that child had done truly
heinous things.

The only solution to this world's ills is for each of us to embrace
that close and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to bring Him
into our hearts making Him the centerpiece of our lives, so that He
is then able to operate through us into this world. We become His
hands and feet. We become His voice in this world. We let those
around us see the salvation He's given us at work in us, as we look
up to Him and teach others those things He first taught us.

-----
We must each refocus the goals of our industry to move with a purpose
focused upon that larger realization and goal, that which brings both
God and improving other people's lives always into the forefront of our
consideration, knowing that He will bring us to success in achieving
all of the goals we have, or to replace our goals with right goals to
which He will then bring us to success within.

Right service in this world:

God first*
People second*

* And because we put God first, and God Himself puts us ahead
of nearly all other considerations, then by putting God first
we automatically also put people first.

-----
Our talents and abilities are gifts given to us by God. As are the
opportunities we've had, and the positions we're now in.

It is time to stand up for what's right in this world, to seek that
close personal relationship with Jesus Christ, with the One who can
focus your life upon God, and upon people simultaneously, so that we
are not alone in this world, we are not seeking our own goals in this
world, but we are consistently looking out for the other guy, and even
for all the other guys, so that our lives are contributory to each
other in grand and focused ways as by the sum total of our plans, our
interests, our wants, wishes, needs even.

We need to start considering the long-term effects of the things we do,
remembering God first, and letting Him be the consistent cue which is
the lead role in our lives here in this world, but also in the world to
come.

-----
Jesus Christ is my King. And His ways are right and true. I challenge
each of you to pick up a Bible for yourself, and read it for yourself,
and come to see for yourself that which I am talking about. If you
have your eyes set on truth and rightness, you will find treasure there
beyond your wildest dreams.

I love you. But Jesus loves you more. Come to Him and receive His
free gift of salvation, and learn of Him. Ask Him to guide you in
your life so that you'll never go astray again. He will do this,
both because of who He is, and because of who you are to Him.

-----

Each of us is part of the community God has place us in. He has given us
this planet, everything on it, our lives, our selves, and He's given us
the inspiration we've had for ideas, the knowledge we possess has come
from the opportunities He's given us, and so much more.

He occupies the place of God in our lives, whether we acknowledge Him or
not. And I encourage each of you to look deeply at everything around you
and see His hand at work.

He stands at the door of your soul and He knocks. He invites you to come
in and sup with Him, and He with you. He knocks because He desires for
you to be part of His life (eternal life), and to be someone who is His
here in this grand universe He's created. He has plans for you that would
bring you to tears because of their beauty were you to know the full extent
of them.

Don't let the enemy bind you up with the distractions from this world.
Step up and see for yourself who God is. You'll find He's nothing like
this world has taught, and everything that true-seeking, right-seeking
part of you has ever longed for ... and more.

Jesus Christ. His name literally means, "God who saves [from judgment]."

Best regards,
Rick C. Hodgin
 

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