Where do you want to go for eternity?

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:

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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:

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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).

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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:

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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):

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----- 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:

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----- 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.

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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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Rick C. Hodgin
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