If Jesus Christ set us free from our sin, then why do we still get sick? Why do bad things happen in the world? Why do I struggle in vain when I work like trying to grasp the wind?

Simple.

We are Justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and we are Sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This relates back to the original proposition of work in that though we are Justified, our work (that is what we do on a daily basis) is still done in broken bodies (they get sick, brake and fall apart) and in a world that itself is fallen (Natural disasters happen, electrical components fail, et cetera, et cetera).

What is the solution? Jesus Christ. Christians are to work for the renewal of this world and are to do it out of love. We must also be aware that the world in which we work is broken and won’t be made complete untill Jesus brings the new Heaven and the new Earth upon his return.

So, despite my current cold and its torment in being a drain, I will work hard each and every day as a faithful servent, for it is that work which is honoring and pleasing to God as an act of worship.

Further, I won’t get depressed or annoyed when things go wrong, for that is a given in the world. There is regrettably no way of escaping it.

God bless,

Matthew Delves

Reflecting back on this semester I’ve discovered one thing rather frightening. I’ve failed to give God the glory he deserves in my studies. I’ve been rather slack, particularly with my subjects. I can give reasons for why this is, though they are far from excuses and all of them can be properly mitigated against if I chose to get off my ass.

So, what will change? A lot I hope. I’m not going to spill details or specifics as I’m yet to pray through them carefully.

What’s ahead? I’m glad you asked. At the moment I’m working for a group called The IT Department which is run by a group of Christians and a great place in which to serve people. In the brief couple of days that I’ve been working for them I’ve come to learn a lot as well as use my knowledge (which God has graciously given me) in order to provide solutions to problems. I do love working for these people and know that it will be many hours of hard work and fun. Though one thing I do love about being a Christian is that despite working hard, I can also work intelligently and this will result in much work getting done in a short time.

So then, what is happening with Reformed Software? It is still going strong, in fact stronger than ever. Having a part time job will result in a couple of things:

1. A pressing need to get documentation done for the beta release
2. The need to spend my time working efficiently rather than being slack / lazy
3. Cash influx so that the business can be established.

How does this affect the general mac using public? It will result in a better standard of work, though may take a month or two longer to get done.

As for my personal spiritual and physical health? They couldn’t be better at the moment as I’m far less stressed than I was previously. So praise God! Woo! It is always because of God that I end up working, and that is something I really enjoy.

Okay, so I’m rambling a fair bit in this blog post.

God bless,

Matthew Delves

As you are aware from my ramblings, I often have crazy ideas and schemes of grandeur, and nothing could be truer. This is precisely why I write.

I have a crazy idea, and it is a grand scheme. That scheme is to see Academics return to a desire for knowledge and wisdom. To see both students and professional academics alike use technology to its fullest potential rather than wrestling with it daily. This is starting off with Scribere which provides a way for taking notes whilst listening to podcasts and vodcasts. In fact, though it works by using an RSS feed to obtain and maintain the audio and video, it can be used for any stand alone file. This is perfect for listening to recorded lectures or church sermons. Further, Scribere takes note of when in the audio/video the note was taken so that the notes can be reviewed and referenced with ease.

That is the first of many crazy ideas and whilst I do love writing about the idea itself, it is nothing if it remains an idea. Scribere has taken shape for the past year and though it is usable, it still has work to be done. This is the second reason that I write. Scribere has generated a lot of interest and popularity amongst my friends and acquaintances and they have been clamouring for it. “Gimme, gimme” are the cries that come thick and fast over twitter as well as when I take out my laptop in a coffee shop on Glenferrie Rd.

This is where you, dear reader, come in. I’m at the point where finishing the app requires solid work and long hours, and these don’t come cheap. In order to get the app completed, I’m in need of funds. One way of doing this is by a site called ChipIn which collates the funds into a PayPal account. In order to participate in this fashion, the ChipIn widget is provided bellow.

If you feel that using the Internet is insecure or would rather do things the old fashioned way via a bank transfer, please contact me at Matt _at_ ReformedSoftware _dot_ com.

But what is in it for yourself dear reader? If funding crazy ideas and schemes of grandure isn’t enough reason then I shall detail what you will get for your donation.

• Access to Scribere beta.
• A free copy of Scribere (retail price will be roughly $30 when released).
• Weekly updates on what is happening with Reformed Software.
• Conversations over coffee.

This, dear reader, is regardless of how much you invest. If you want to invest $5 then you save money. Though I will openly say that my goal is to raise $7,000 so the more you invest, the higher the standard to which applications will be developed. To make good on this, please contact me so I know you’ve invested.

If, dear reader, you are considering Reformed Software as a serious business investment, then please do contact me. I do love talking to you my friend, dear reader, and appreciate the advice that you give. There is a business plan written as well, and in true style it has been writen using LaTeX.

I would like to hear from you soon, and if you decide to support using ChipIn then please send me an email so that I may respond.

Take care in your travels and may the God of all peace and glory keep watch over you.

God bless,

Matt.

Though God in his grace has shown me something this past week. Namely, I will always default to trying to please people. I will default to trying to gain their approval of my actions. I will desire their adoration. This is a horrible thing! I constantly place myself in the position of God without even realising it. I don’t respect people as they should be respected and only respect them when I deem them ‘respectable’. If you read my previous post you will see what I’m getting at. Today, I did much the same thing. Without any consideration for the talker being an image bearer of God I openly joked about the material being presented with my friends. In God’s grace even they thought I was rather harsh with that.

So again, I repent for the exact reasons as in my previous post. Ohh how I strugle with sin. I wrestle with it each day and there seems to be no end to it. Though I do know there is an end to sin and it will be when Jesus returns. This is expressed with great detail by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans:

Romans 7:14-25 Listen

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (ESV)

We see that man, because of sin, does the things that he shouldn’t and further because of sin though he knows what is right he is incapable of doing that. Does this mean we are just to keep on sinning? By no means! It is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus that we are freed from sin. Continue reading what Paul sais and this is evident:

Romans 8:1-8 Listen

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (ESV)

Praise God! My actions, wretched as they are and that of menstral rags, aren’t counted against me! Because of Jesus I’m set free!

Though, I still sin. What exactly does this mean? Does it mean I’m not saved? By no means. Does Jesus need to be crucified again and again each time I sin? By no means.

What I must remember and take comfort in is that I desire to do what is right and it is God working through me that produces good acts that are fruits of the spirit being love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Getting back on topic, this relates in great depth to Evangelism. If I’m to please man whenever I am to talk to them, even if it isn’t about Jesus, then I’m placing myself first above God and that is a despicable thing. Rather I should humble myself and be a servant in every conversation and circumstance. It is by being a servant that opportunities to talk about Jesus will be opened.

Now I must make a disclaimer here. There are times to be outspoken, there are times to correct and rebuke and there are especially times when being a servant to someone is the wrong thing to do. I’m not going to set out a list of when to do one and when to do the other, that would be legalism and more specifically adding to the Gospel. If I were, I should be considered a heratic and not be listened to.

So I ask for chances to serve. First and formost I will do the work that is required and then some. I will work towards the good of the city and the renewal of it. By doing so, I hope to show as well as proclaim Christianity to people. Our deeds give credance to our words and this is pivotal in evangelism.

If you see me acting like a fool, feel free to let me know. Please also realise that this isn’t an open invetation to treat people like crap. In no way do I endorse or encourage being a slave to other people. Serve people, don’t be a slave to them. I apologise for the subjective use of slave and servant. By God’s grace when each verb is applicable will be self evident.

I will always encourage and pray for those I know that they humbly serve, and to my Christian brothers and sisters I ask for the same and twice the patience as I often show towards others. By God’s grace I may one day not be as skeptical or as cynical as I currently am, though until then I will humble myself and serve others in there work and ministry.

God bless and go serve your King,

Matthew Delves

Let me repeat that once more as even I fail to see its importance and depth on many ocassions. To God be the glory forever and ever, Amen.

Typical to form, as this weeks trials have been thrown in hard and fast, I have been a constant and rude fool in the face of them. Sunday night I chose to foolishly work on an assignment, though I got it finished, I am still to recover being several days post the binge. Come Tuesday morning when I had to demonstrate the assignment, I was rude and abusive towards the Lecturer for the subject. And that is taking a light hearted view on everything. In the lead up to the assignment, I was constantly bragging about the poor quality of the lecturer (feel free to read that as I arrogantly thought I new more) and his lack of mentioning the language required to implement the assignment in. In short, I do repent (publicly and also privately) as not only did I offend the lecturer of the subject, but more importantly I sinned against God as I blatently (and I do not try and excuse the fact) ignored the person that he chose to place in authority over me.

It is at times like these that I am reminded of Psalm 51, a Psalm of David in which he repents of his adultury and murder. David arrogantly thought that he would get away with everything, though God brought him to repentance through the Prophet Nathan.

For me, there was no prophet in this case. God chose to convict my heart and this brought me to my knees in repentance.

To see what David said, lets read Psalm 51:

Psalm 51:1-2

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! (ESV)

Here we hear just what David thinks of his sin. In truth, it is a good description of how sin is seen. Our sin is like dirty rags and needs to be washed clean.

Psalm 51:3-6

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. (ESV)

This part of the psalm could be an entire blog post in itself, particularly verse 4. It is important to remember that David did wrong by Bathsheba and by Uriah. Though it is the root of his sin that is important. David sinned against God. Let me say that again David sinned against God. And for putting it plainly, I have sinned against God. Of personal interest is verse 6 which shows that God teaches wisdom in the heart. It is not knowledge from the head, but rather wisdom that is learnt through the heart. This is something profound and for David it was done in sorrow and pain as the child born to Bathsheba died.

Psalm 51:7-12

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit. (ESV)

Here we have David repenting of what he has done. He knows that he needs to be washed clean and we see that it doesn’t say he will offer sacrifices, instead David asks God to make him clean, to create in him a clean heart, to purge him with hyssop and wash him with water.

Further, David understood that it is by God’s work in him that he is made clean. David asks for a restoration of the joy of God’s salvation. This too is what I seek, I know I may be being a bit harsh with only providing one example, yet it is indicative of my current attitude and vile arrogance not only towards said lecturer, but also towards others whom I would consider friends.

Psalm 51:13-17

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (ESV)

Here David again seeks salvation from the LORD, he asks for forgiveness. He also promises to teach sinners the error of their ways. David desires nothing more than to praise God knowing just what God has done. We also see that God values repentance over sacrafice, though there is the need of sacrafice and that sacrafice was Jesus.

Psalm 51:18-19

18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar. (ESV)

The Psalm ends with David asking God to do to Zion what is in his will. He understands that it is God who builds up and also God who destroys. We also see that when God has made a person clean, he delights in their sacrafices which are pleasing to him.

A rather long winded post it seems, though one which many people should read time and time again. Our sin is like filthy rags before God and it is only by his grace that we in fact realise such things.

I’m always thankful for everything that God does, in the good and the bad. Particularly I’m thankful that he sent his Son Jesus to die for the sins of all people. That is, Jesus death and resurrection is sufficient for the salvation of all people, though all people may not be saved.

So, I shall say God bless and fare thee well in serving the LORD of all peace and Glory.

God bless,

Matthew Delves

Going through the amount of work I have to do it consists of 4 assignments, 2 tests and ongoing requirements for a year long project. That is just for this semesters university subjects. Next semester will bring its own challenges and problems, but they can be put of for the moment.

The fun stuff, and what I’m doing as far as procrastination is writing detailed documentation for Scribere as part of my work for Reformed Software. The reason for this is that I’m currently scraping to very bottom of the barrel as far as funds go and job hunting is drawing up every dead end possible. My count of jobs that I’ve applied for is above 20 and most of them I haven’t heard back from. Though when most people would be likely to give up, I’m still plowing ahead and putting in just as much effort with building Reformed Software as a viable business and this requires capital. So, I’m busily putting together documentation so that I can approach angle investors and start to make a living of the work I do for Reformed Software.

Though until that stage I’m going to be content with some small amounts of vanity through Google. The first is that searching for Scribere in google will result in this. Though that’s not the least of it. If you search for Reformed Software in google you will get this.

Enough vanity!!!

I must be humble about this as it is only ever by God’s grace that such things do happen and He is the one who deserves the Glory, not I.

So, whilst I manage to contain the excitement from being slightly more popular at the moment I will be humbling myself and placing myself as a servant, subject to God’s will.

If you want to invest in Reformed Software, then please send an email to matt at reformed software dot com.

God bless,

Matthew Delves

That project is Scribere and with any luck there shall be an open beta starting up around the middle of the year.

So, scoot on over to scribere.info and find out all about it.

God bless,

Matthew Delves

As far as what’s been happening; well, as always a lot and that includes not much blog posting. In short my life has been turned on its head by a merciful and loving God whom desires nothing more than having his children draw near to him. How this has eventuated is that a couple of things have come to light. First of them is that at the worst of times I’m selfish, egotistical and arrogant. At the best of times I’m much the same. Further to this, God has shown me that many times I will underestimate the amount of work required and typically this results in being rather detrimental to my health. A couple of nights already this week I’ve had about 5 hours sleep. Though it has been solid sleep, it has been no where near what I require.

As well as this, I’ve still be working on creating a software development startup (Reformed Software) and this has been time draining and just a little bit stressful. Though as with any startup the work is always fun and everything learned is never regretted at a later stage.

As to what is happening within the next couple of months, uni studies start up again on Monday at the always pleasant hour of 8:30am. As a morning person, I do not say that with a prejudice but rather with eager excitement and anticipation.

Where this leaves me is that I have a lot of work ahead of me this year. Not only is it my final year of studies, but I also will be working furiously on Reformed Software in both software development (Scribere) but also with creating the business.

So, with the pizza just minutes away from being delivered I must sign off and get to enjoying the rest of the day.

God bless,
Matthew Delves

Tags: rugby, uni, christianity, work

The most fun was had with the sound equipment that I got to play around with. It was all hired from a company, so it was better than the stuff that usually sits in the church. Though this isn’t to say that the church’s equipment isn’t crap/useless, just that the gear hired was really cool. Front of house consisted of 2 mid-highs and a bass bin on each side of the stage. The sound produced was crisp, though ongoing problems with the bass guitar lead to little use of the bass bins.

The response for the service was a blessing as the weather held of leading to many people attending form the local area and hearing Mark Leach give a talk about Jesus amongst the singing. Unfortunately, not many of those in attendance joined in the singing which was a disappointment considering the quality of the band.

Back to the roadie aspect of it. I was almost giddy with joy at all of the equipment to play around with. Particularly the crisp sound that the speakers produced allowing the drums to stand out. Having a phenomenal drummer did add to the quality as well. With 4 female vocalists it did cause a problem in trying to distinguish the voices, though with Mark’s help this was accomplished. Congrats also go to John for his assistance in mixing and muscles in setup and pack down. With the help of many band members and other church folk, the pack down and setup went smoothly. Many lessons were learned as far as logistics and generally setting everything up.

Alas, I did ware myself out and must get back to coughing up a couple of lungs.

God bless,

Matthew Delves

Deuteronomy 4:5-8

5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? (ESV)

I heard that God was close to his people Israel and that his statutes and rules are so righteous as all the law. How great a God it is that we worship! A God that wants to bring us back into a relationship with him. A God that sent his own son to die upon a cross so that the sin which separates us from him may be atoned  for.

My heart shouts with Joy at this news.

God bless,

Matthew Delves