Tuesday, April 30, 2002

Here's a good quote from The Apostolic Ministry by Bp. Kenneth E. Kirk. The episcopate is the divinely ordained ministerial instrument for securing to the Church of God its continuous and organic unity, not as a club of like-minded worshipers or aspirants to holiness, but as a God-given city of salvation. 10:28:33 PM

NASA Unveils Photos From the Hubble's Newest Camera. NASA unveiled images of a galactic tadpole, a nursery for newborn stars and a giant pillar of dust today in the first batch of pictures snapped by Hubble Space Telescope's newest camera. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] 8:48:43 PM

Another quote from Sam Ruby's article referring to the reason why the Google API has created such a stir: No, this isn't the result of coercion on the part of Google, or substantial financial incentives to the participants, or even a sustained marketing campaign. Instead, it is the result of a relatively quiet post to a mailing list for an excellent but otherwise relatively obscure (in the US at least) programming language. This "excellent" programming language is Ruby, which I have begun to learn and appreciate. I'm glad to see it being used by Google and praised by this columnist. 8:27:53 PM

Ok. I've found plenty of stuff griping about the complexity of using SOAP-RPC for the new Google API. Here is a good counter point posted on Scripting News. "Google's Genius?" asks Sam Ruby. "To pick a wire format for which there are dozens of toolkits poised to directly translate the protocol into readily consumable bits." Yes. [Scripting News] 7:59:49 PM

I read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 in morning prayer, and I got a new insight into a much talked about passage. Verse 2 is used a lot: "For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night." This is used to teach that the rapture could happen at any moment. However, verse 3 speaks of sudden destruction coming to those who are "in darkness", who say "peace and security". Then verse 4 says, "But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief." One possible interpretation is that believers who are studying prophecy and comparing it to the newspaper will see the day coming and be prepared. But St. Paul doesn't speak about ways to discern when that day will come, but instead he goes on to tell us to live as sons of light. The point of this passage is that the day of judgment is coming as a thief, but the thief is only a threat to those who are under judgment. So the encouragement is to "put on the breastplate of faith and love" and rest in the fact that "whether we wake or sleep we might live with him." I expect that for those who are walking in close fellowship with Christ, the day of His coming will be as natural to them as the sunrise. 8:21:15 AM