Go out with joy

As I was praying this morning, and studying the scriptures, I remembered that going out with joy is one of the most powerful testimonies to the love of God. Some people just seem to have joy and a hope, even if circumstances are crummy.

It reminds me of the famous passage in the Prophet Isaiah chapter 55 (which I wrote some about last year). Verse 12 says,

• "You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
  
• the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
  
• and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."

How is it to go out in the joy of the Lord and be so contagious that the trees of the fields and the mountains will even catch the joy? Obviously it's poetic, but what better way to speak of the fellowship with God than to display joy and hope as you go along?

Where I live, everyone around me says, "As-Salamu Alaykum" which basically means "Peace be upon you" in Arabic--a beautiful greeting. I also long for a joy to be among us all through knowing the very character and nature of God and how he extends his hand in love and calls us each by name (John 10:3)!

As-Salamu Alaykum!

Psalm 27

It's amazing how the same section of scripture that you have read many times comes to life anew every time.

The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?

This is a basic rule for life. Even if someone kills me or I die, because the Lord is my eternal salvation, where is there room for fear? I'm not my own salvation--I haven't saved myself through my piety or good deeds.

The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?

If the last sentence speaks of my eternal salvation, this one speaks of my life here and now. Fear is one of the most devious tricks of Satan. It paralyzes a person from carrying out the things they know they should do.

One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

The most important thing, the goal of life, the highest request to be made of God, is to dwell in his presence, to gaze on his beauty, to bask in his love.

For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

God is faithful. If we look to him and remain in his presence, he will reach back to us and do these things.

at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

The natural response for the deliverance that is offered.

More on this another day, but I'm trying to keep these short. There is a lot to fear in India. Going out on the streets trying to practice language is really difficult for me, whether it's because I'm not particularly extroverted, or because if I look silly, I want it to be on my own terms, or some other reason. Yet the people I would interact with are not my enemies at all--most of them are happy to help me learn. Yet it's easier to just stay in the house.

Yet none of these fears should be serious. Real fear is not having enough money to buy food, or not having a secure place to stay. Yet these "big" fears like that are easier to tackle head-on and to give a name to. It's the small fears that constantly bombard a person. Yet God has promised release from fear, and that a life lived in fear is not a life of obedience.

I'm writing these things to remind myself... :)

The Language of [Jesus]

Since living in India, it's interesting to see the different religious terminologies, based on different languages, traditions, and religions. I've discovered that most (if not all) major religions in India have a reverence for Jesus Christ. But there is confusion about his name, and his title, perhaps.

• The Name
• The name he probably went by in his time was "Yeshua"
  
• "Jesus" that we use in English seems to have come primarily from the Latin, "Iesous."
• Most Hindi speakers will say "Yeshu"
  
• He is known in the Arabic from the Qur'an as عيسى ("Isa") and that has become the name all Muslims will use, Arabic-speaking or not.
  
• Whatever language, the meaning is the same; the name means "God is salvation."
  

• The Title
• The original title is, of course, Hebrew: Mashiaẖ
  
• When this title is translated into Greek, it is "Christ"
  
• In English we say "Messiah" or "Christ"
• In Arabic, as defined in the Qur'an, his title is "al-Masīḥ" and that has become the title all Muslims will use, Arabic-speaking or not.
• Whatever language, the meaning is the same; his title means "Anointed One."

Home Router and DD-WRT

I just discovered DD-WRT , which is replacement firmware supporting a large number of SOHO routers (e.g., Netgear, Linksys, D-Link, etc). I tried it on my new D-Link DIR-615 and so far it seems to be working well. One of the big things I was going for was QoS (Quality of Service) which can prioritize things based on some criteria. For example, I prioritized Skype so my wife and I can have good conversations with people back in the US, even if someone else is transferring a large file.

There are a lot of other slick features as well, for example, there are instructions on how to create a tunnel with popular brokers, such as SixXS and Hurricane Electric.

Since DD-WRT is Linux, it opens up a world of possibilities as well, for example, ssh access combined with Dynamic DNS allows remote logging in for testing purposes, etc.

IPv6 with Cisco ASA, Windows 2008, Linux

It's my first blog post in nearly a year. One of my new years resolutions is to post at least three times/week. We'll see how it goes.

Recently I was implementing IPv6 using the devices mentioned above. The Cisco ASA firewall code was 8.2(1), which supposedly supports IPv6... it seems unless you have a failover pair. If you set a static IPv6 address, the IPv6 on the interfaces will shut themselves down because of a DAD (duplicate address detection) failure as both the active and the standby firewalls will assume whatever address you put in. With IPv4, you can enter a "standby" address on each interface so that won't happen. The way around it on a failover pair is to use the EIU-64 address (the prefix+the 48-bit MAC address and padding between the vendor part and the device part). Therefore, both firewalls will have unique addresses and there will be no conflict. The problem with this is:

• The addresses become full sized monsters
• The address will change in the event of the standby firewall going active
  
• Both firewalls give out RA (router advertisement) messages

With Linux, if I hard-code a default route, it will pay attention to that, primarily. If I hard-code a default route in Windows 2008, it seems to simply add it to the other ones it obtained via the RA messages it received. As a result, IPv6 will be quite flaky on Windows with two routers, if one is not forwarding traffic (in the ASA world, the standby firewall will not route anything).

I can think of two solutions:

• Upgrade the ASA to 8.3 code, which allows IPv6 failover commands and should work fine. The problem with this is that you will have to upgrade the RAM, which is a pain.
• Suppress the RA messages from the ASA. This can be done with the " ipv6 nd suppress-ra" interface configuration command.

Obviously the first solution is better, but the second one works if upgrading is not possible.

Cheers!
Matt

Love, Joy, and Translations

I was reading the NLT Bible translation on my trip to India, because we have a small version that is easy to travel with. I have come to conclude that it is good to read different translations of the bible sometimes, especially with passages that you are familiar with. It seems that the wording often gives a new emphasis to get my attention. I'm obviously not the first person to think this as it's quite a common practice in inductive study methods, etc, but I just had a good, practical encounter with it.

As I was praying this morning, I felt a prompting to read John 17. Since I just got back from my trip, the NLT was sitting right next to me. So as I read John 17, I found a verse that I hadn't paid that much attention to in the past: John 17:23. In the NIV translation, I just blow right past, May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

That's great, the Father loves Jesus and he loves me too. But the NLT reads, May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

What a concept! Certainly the Father loves Jesus perfectly, as they are one. But to consider that he loves me just as is incredible! Hallelujah!

While on the subject, a while back I experienced another example where reading another translation was helpful. Technically, Eugene Peterson's The Message isn't a translation, but it can still help in this way.

Luke 10:20 tells us that our joy comes from the fact that our names are written in heaven, not because great things happen in our presence. Great things don't always happen in our presence, and if that's the thing that brings us joy, it's only fleeting joy. But if our joy comes because our names are written in heaven, or as the Message says it, All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God's authority over you and presence with you. Wow.

As for me, when great things happen in my presence, I'm going to practice thanking God for it, but also remembering that my joy comes from the fact that he brought me into his presence and wrote my name in the book of life.

Isaiah 55 part 2

Where should my eyes be fixed? God says:

• Listen to me (v2)
  
• Come to me (v3)
• Hear me (v3)

If somebody says something to me that is not in line with what God says, I can't listen. But God says that he will make a covenant with me, the same faithful love that he promised to David via Moses (Exodus 34:6).

Who is the "him" in verse 4? It has to be Jesus, because in Acts 8:32, the Ethiopian is reading the Isaiah scroll, in chapter 53, which is part of the same discourse. And who is "you" in all these verses? It must be anyone who is thirsty (verse 1). So what's our role? It's to be so endowed with the splendor the Lord that nations want to be part of what we have. How can we be endowed with splendor? By seeking the Lord, forsaking wicked ways and thoughts. If I do that, God will bless me with splendor, which I read as a holy, contagious joy! When people come seeking the Lord, he will freely pardon and show great mercy!

We can show mercy and our own efforts. I hope that doesn't sound like heresy, but certainly people who have no belief in God can show mercy. But to show the kind of mercy that God shows is beyond our thoughts.

And the rest of Isaiah 55 just flows off the tongue! I'm no poet, but even translated into English, verses 8-13 are so beautiful.