Ain't Complicated

Love. First. Always.

As is my wont, last night before going to bed I read the day’s portions from Daily Light on the Daily Path. Here’s the morning’s section:

The fruit of the Spirit is love.

God is love: and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. — The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. — Unto you … which believe he is precious. — We love him, because he first loved us. — The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

Ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. — This is my com-mandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. — Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. — Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.

GAL. 5:22. I John 4:16. -Rom. 5:5. -I Pet. 2:7. -I John 4:19. -II Cor. 5:14,15. I Thes. 4:9. -John 15:12. -I Pet. 4:8. -Eph. 5:2.

I got to thinking, “How do I try to avoid obeying the divine command to love? Do I figure there are other verses that somehow free me from obedience to this command? For instance, do I ever think that the imperative to confront error and sin somehow minimizes the overarching requirement to love?”

Let me ever remember this: All other commands hang from the twin commands to love.

It does not work the other way.

So let me love — first, foremost, last, in between, always.

Dropping that, I have nothing left upon which to securely hang any other obedience.

Period.

(You can read the evening’s section here as well: Daily Light on the Daily Path – March 1.)

Schrocks “Implored Us All to Forgive”

Jeff and Carolyn led the way.

“As a Christian, I realize that forgiveness is the only way I can be a Christian.” said Jeff. “And in return for that, forgiveness is required of me. So, in that sense, I don’t have a choice.”

They implored us all to forgive a man named Clifford Helm. He was driving the other truck that November night. Original theories ranged from cell-phone distraction to a suicide mission. In court, Helm’s lawyers told the jury he had a coughing fit and blacked out. Before their children were even buried, Carolyn and Jeff visited Helm in the hospital. And, when he was found not guilty of vehicular homicide, the Schrocks stood by his side.

“We personally believe that Cliff was just as much a victim in all this as we were. It was outside of his control,” explained Jeff.

Five years later, that bond remains strong. The two families have dinners together and say their friendship is both strong and necessary for their healing. How do they do it? The Schrocks say – simply – faith.

“As a human, it’s hard to understand that,” said Jeff. “It’s the way we believe God has designed it.”

Please, read the rest: Grace in Grief: The Schrock Family, Five Years Later.

My Info Is Online

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Look, my info is already available online.

It shouldn’t be difficult for you to find a valid mailing address for me.

I know you’ll have to work harder for that information (than if I were to simply email it to you).

But I’ll compensate you handsomely for that little bit of extra work on your part. Just send me 10% of the amount you mention above…and you keep the rest.

I really could use the money, so please don’t delay.

Thank you.

Brazil’s World Cup Child “Commodities”

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa generated over 3 million visitors from across the globe to join in weeks of festivities. The next World Cup is not until 2014, but with those kinds of numbers, host country Brazil has already begun to prepare.

[…]

One of the largest threats to the impoverished of the country as it relates to the events is a swell in human trafficking. A rise in the number of sex slaves is inevitably tied to these large sporting events, as was evidenced at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada. Where the demand is high, so also will be the supply.

The “supply” in Brazil is already disturbingly high and will only grow. Kathy Redmond with Compassion International describes the current scene as “pure evil.”

[…]

Young Brazilian girls are sold, coerced or abducted into the sex trade, blossoming numbers of victims to as many as 400,000, according to the U.S. State Department.

[…]

An International Mission Board worker told Mission Network News that traffickers “started the trafficking of people in 2004 as soon as they found out the World Cup would be in South Africa” for 2010. […] With just three years to go until the next games, young girls and boys may already be getting trafficked and prepped.

Source: Traffickers likely already preparing for next World Cup

Quilt Show

At Zion Mennonite Church a mile or so down the road from us:

Maybe I’ll post some photos. Later. If I take some. Later.

.htaccess Question

So hackers and wannabe-hackers probe sites for the presence of setup.php in various real and imagined and software-guessed directories.

How do I attack and/or block such probes via an .htaccess file?

Here are some code snippets I’ve seen across the Web:

<FILES setup.php>
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</FILES>

RewriteRule ^(.*)setup\.php$ http://www.google.com/ [NC]

RewriteRule setup\.php$ http://www.google.com [NC,L]

RewriteRule setup\.php$ – [G]

RewriteRule setup\.php$ – [F]

If any of those work, which is the best?

And if there’s a better way than any of the above, what is it?

Thanks!

Update at 8:46 pm: At this point, I’m using

RewriteEngine On
# 403-Forbidden
RewriteRule setup\.php$ – [F]

Along with an order allow,deny set-up denying access to a huge pile of IPs out of China.