Just thought I would give a short description on why I'm here and who I am, and what my intentions are on this place.

My name is Andreas, I am 24 years old and work as a Computer programmer, games programming is a hobby of mine along with music and spending time with my girlfriend.

I live in Sweden, a country in wich most of the population is Atheists. As i've said, I don't consider myself a christian, but I do have a belief system in wich I have faith.

Anyway when I was younger I always looked for the meaning of life and why we are here on this planet, and the only thing I discovered was that we are here to learn Love, and I fully believe that love and compassion is all that matters. I won't go into any depths on my own belief since this is after all a christian board, and you should keep it that way.

So, what I know now is that christianity is the religion that is closest to my own belief, and that is one reason I'm here. Another reason is that I won't gain much from discussing the meaning of life with a scientist or atheist. And the christians that are nearby where I live do not appeal to me as caring or loving persons, they seem to be more of the "fear god" or "you are not as good as we" kind. I won't say that is wrong, they are simply not the kind that I like to talk with.

Recently I decided I need to change my life style, cut down on the drinking, quit the nicotine addiction and truly live the way that I want to instead of following what others tell me, and that's not easy to do alone you know, especially not when most of your friends are atheists or think that it's only wimps who won't drink alcohol.

I have no plans on living like a saint, I just want to live a more healthy life where people can se me as someone to trust instead as someone to drink beer with.

Ok, the final reason I'm here, at this board you seem sincere and honest and you also seem to actually be glad to be able to help people with advice and such, and you're all open minded wich is very important to me.

Now that should cover for why I'm here,
And no, I do NOT think anyone at this board is a wimp, regardless what religion you have, what music you like or your hobbies, we all have differences, and If I say "I would NEVER o that" that does not mean I think it's silly or wrong, so I hope noone has been upset of something that I've said because I certainly do not mean to be rude.

I have never studied the christian belief in depth, but I would like to, mainly because I'm interested. The reason I wanted to know about your music was because I am truly interested in how you live, remember not many people here in sweden are open christians.

Some of this is related to this topic, in case you wonder:
http://www.christiancoders.com/cgi-bin/ubb-cgi/postdisplay.cgi?forum=Forum2&topic=000226 (views on music)

So, if I have missunderstood the meaning of this site, or if you think I have come to the wrong place you are free to tell me I should leave, no harm done.

Cheers everyone
/MetalMan

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

It's great that you have a system of belief. Christianity is more than that, it involves God physically acting in your life, initially in a way the Bible defines, and after that in a myriad of ways. If you're interested, the Bible says He is standing and knocking, waiting for you to let Him in.

I don't see any reason you cannot discuss your beliefs ( although it's not for me to say ), but it's true that in the end, love is what matters. But while human love is better than human hate, nothing can surpass God's love.

It's sad that some 'Christian' folk are really just self rightouess religionists who use the name of Christ, Jesus said we must serve one another, not to look down on anyone. The Bible gives us ways to tell if someone is really Christ's, one is the power I keep talking about, another is the love we show for each other and to others outside the church.

Regarding alcohol, I personally could not stop drinking before becoming a Christian, but when I did become a Christian, I never wanted to drink again. Over time, my circle of friends changed, not because I rejected anyone, but because they rejected me. It was a shame, but I am certainly happier now than I was then.

Regarding 'saints', the word in the Bible is actually synonymous with 'Christian'. :-)

I hope you decide to stay and to ask some questions regarding Christianity, but either way it sounds like you have your head screwed on pretty right. In this day and age, that's quite an achievement. I think your outlook will make you pretty happy to hear what Jesus has to say to you, I sure hope so. Either way, I think your honesty and openness is an asset to this board.

I work as a Delphi programmer, I mostly create large database
applications, and large websites using .asp and/or Delphi made cgi's. I'd like to know how to create little utilities for a palm or Pocket pc, but I've never learnt how to do it, the c language is nothing for me
The language I use for game development is Blitz, and sometimes Delphi...

Anyway, regarding my belief. I understand what you mean with love being a big part of life, and the difference between god's love and human love. The love I'm talking about is not really human love either, it's more being "filled" with love for everything, not just against fellow humans but for all living and dead objects, to feel your body is nothing but love and acceptance against everything. And that Jesus dude you're talking about, well frankly I do not know wether he existed or not, but what he preached (what I've heard of it) was nothing but pure love, so I admire him for that and what he did. I believe that to many focus on worshipping the man jesus, instead of his messages... Regardless what religion, his message could be of great use for all humanity. But that's just what I believe and I might be very wrong...

quote:

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Either way, I think your honesty and openness is an asset to this board.

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/Cheers

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

quote:

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Originally posted by MetalMan:

And no, I do NOT think anyone at this board is a wimp,

---

This may sound a bit cheesy, but I find it very challenging to maintain my spirituality, it is hard work, and can't think of a less wimpy thing to do, so your point is well taken. I admire your open mindedness (no, I'm not going on about the brain in a jar thing again ), and you certainly haven't offended me at all. Good hearing from you.

So you want love, well you're looking in the right place. Whether you believe Jesus existed or not, if you read his 4 biographies (the Gospels), you'll see he's absolutely full of love. Love that defies human understanding. Love that is powerful enough to change your life.

Here's a famous Bible passage on love:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

You will also notice as you read about Jesus, that he claimed to be much more than that. Much more than a loving person or a great teacher. In fact if you look at what he said, you can only conclude that he was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Son of God.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; John 11:25

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Jesus let Himself be nailed to a cross and killed for my sins so that I might have eternal life with Him in heaven. If anyone of you did that, I might worship them. He showed me love before I even knew what it meant to love Him. He wiped away my tears and healed my heart. I owe Him everything. I love Him and He loves me. He is my Lord.

I know how daft that sounds to some people

See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don't know God, so they don't understand that we are his children. 1 John 3:1

And a little passage about how BIG God's love is:

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-40

I know you might not belief in Him, but if you're going to have a closer look at Christianity, you have nothing to lose from throwing a little prayer up to Him to reveal himself to you. God Bless .

@rowanseymour: That is what I'm talking about, exactly that kind of love. You just woke up my hunger for reading

quote:

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You will also notice as you read about Jesus, that he claimed to be much more than that. Much more than a loving person or a great teacher. In fact if you look at what he said, you can only conclude that he was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Son of God.

---

It's not that I don't believe in Jesus, it's more that I don't think it should be important wether he existed or not, it's his messages that should be preached, not the need of proof for his existance...

Am I compleletly lost now, have I made a complete fool of myself?

Cheers

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

welcome on board here man, nice to see you indeed
You gave up smoking and cut down on alcohol, that is a mighty achievement, how have you managed to keep off the ciggies ? not easy

rowanseymour some good quotes there, reading this thread is pretty nice to do, what a great community eh ?

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from your old mate
c h i e f y
global chiefy to yer old seafarin' maties

quote:

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Originally posted by MetalMan:
And that Jesus dude you're talking about, well frankly I do not know wether he existed or not, but what he preached (what I've heard of it) was nothing but pure love, so I admire him for that and what he did.

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I highly recommend a book called "The Case for Christ".

An unofficial site: http://www.the-case-for-christ.com/

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A must read: http://www.christiancoders.com/cgi-bin/articles/show_article.pl?f=christiancaleb01112002.html

@Torial: I haven't looked at the link yet, but I will as soon as I get home. Thank you, I appreciate it a lot...

Thank you all for your input, I'm glad you took the time

Cheers

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

[This message has been edited by MetalMan (edited April 28, 2003).]

~Angel~

regarding Jesus, the real thing He desires is not for us to believe in Him, that's just an idea in our head. He desires us to follow Him and to give Him the chance to give us stuff. The Bible says that God is going to spend eternity showing His kindness towards us. I reckon that sound alright !!!!

The Bible pattern to approach God is laid out in Acts 2, where people asked the Apostles what they needed to do to be saved. Peter answered repent ( which does NOT mean to wallow in sorrow for your past, it means being willing to try doing things God's way, it literally means to turn around, to be willing to follow God's ideas instead of our own ), be baptised ( immersion in water is a symbol of being willing to bury our old life and rise in new life through Christ ), and we can then expect to recieve the Holy Spirit, which Peter had already identified with the sign of speaking in tongues, which had been what attracted the attention in the first place. This means that God gives us a new language to pray with, because the Bible says we don't know what to pray for. What else happens depends on the individual, tongues is the only consistent part of it. Some people get emotional, others do not. That's fine, emotions are not wrong, but they are natural, the Bible says not to trust them. Some people have other needs that are met, for example my being delivered from alcohol addiction, other people I know were healed of cancers, and so on.

Unfortunately, the 2,000 years since Jesus lived have caused a diversity of thought on what He said and what He meant, and I am sure others will jump in to suggest that what I've said is wrong. I can certainly prove what I have said from the Bible, but to me it's perhaps more important that until I did what I am speaking about, and let God fill me with the Holy Spirit, I personally found it impossible to follow God. Others perhaps manage it in their own strength, but thankfully I was weak in myself. I'd suggest that the step you need to consider taking is to find a church that will baptise you and pray with you for the Holy Spirit. Let God work in YOUR life, and then judge for yourself if He is who He claims to be.

@christian:
yeah delphi is 00 pascal. but much more.. its much more solid 00 than C++, and has been the forerunner of most modern programming paradigms.. its such an amazing language, so far ahead of its time.. you know C# is basically "Delphi for C" which is quite fitting since the architect of delphi is also the architect of C#.. many of the things in java and C# (other than the Pmode code ) come straight from delphi.. as i said anders, the architect of delphi has since architected C# (as well as doing ms J++).. and sun contracted borland (delphi's creators) to design java Netbeans, based on delphi's component model.. hehe you can tell i'm a delphi freak.. (basically a borland freak from the days of Tasm, borland C++ in the dos days, Turbo Pascal oh yeah..

@metalman:
From time to time you will discover some arguments on this site regarding aspects of christianity, some quite heated.. Don't let this scare you off, you might think "if this is what christians are like, then i want to have nothing to do with it", but Christians are humans also, and we are capible of ignoring Christ and just acting out of our own selfish, self centered ego.. One of the biggest problems with many of us christians is the area of pride, and its actually one of the biggest things that really keep many Christians away from walking with God closely..Thoughout history many men with selfish agendas, agendas of power, agendas of controlling people, have used 'the things of God' and messed thigns up bigtime, look at the crusades for instance.. But Just beceause men will be men, doesn't take away from true christianity and from Christ, if you know what i mean.

As for knowing if Jesus lived 2000 years ago or not.. There is a lot of historical evidence, but irregardless than that - i have a personal relationship with the dude.. I talk to Him, He talks to me. He does miracles in my life..

Jesus claimed to be more than a teacher, He claimed to be God. So either he is right, or he was a lunatic (maybe with some good ideas)

And either i interact with Jesus , my saviour, or i interact with a spiritual entity that lies to me, But the nature of the spiritual entity i interact is not one that lies, it is one of complete love, it is one that lines up with the character of God revealed in the bible..

i'm glad you liked my friend rowans post.. the bible is filled with such awesome scripture.. It also says that these words of Jesus are like living water, they feed us.. It seems that really you are having a hunger in your spirit made alive by them.. feed on them.. The best way to find Jesus, is not to listen to read 100 different books, listen to 100 different preachers.. But get it from the bible directly.. I don't know of good modern translations in swedish, but i do in english.. but i can find out about the swedish translations for you if you like..

Karl

Karl.

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Karl /GODCENTRIC
Visionary Media
the creative submitted to the divine.
Husband of my amazing wife Aleshia
Klumsy@xtra.co.nz

28 I sin församling har Gud insatt några till apostlar, andra till profeter och lärare. Det finns också de som har gåvan att göra under, de som har gåvan att bota sjuka, de som har gåvan att hjälpa människor i nöd, de som har gåvan att organisera och samordna olika uppgifter och de som talar språk som de aldrig har lärt sig.
29 Kan alla vara apostlar? Naturligtvis inte. Kan alla vara profeter? Nej. Kan alla vara lärare? Kan alla göra under?
30 Kan alla bota sjuka? Naturligtvis inte. Ger Gud oss alla förmåga att tala på språk som vi aldrig har lärt oss? Kan vem som helst förstå och översätta det som sägs på ett sådant språk?
31 Absolut inte. Men sträva efter att få de gåvor som är de mest betydelsefulla.Och nu ska jag visa er något som är överlägset allt annat!
1 Om jag talar alla språk, både i himlen och på jorden, men inte har kärlek till andra människor, så är jag med mina tomma ord bara en pratmakare som för oväsen.
2 Om jag kan profetera och känner till alla Guds hemligheter och allt som ska hända i framtiden, men inte älskar mina medmänniskor, vad gör jag då för nytta med all min kunskap? Om jag har trons gåva, så att jag kan flytta på berg bara genom att säga ett ord, men inte har tillräckligt med kärlek till andra så är jag ingenting värd.
3 Om jag ger allt jag äger till fattiga människor, och är villig att dö i min tjänst, men inte älskar dem jag är kallad att tjäna, så kommer mitt arbete inte att ha något som helst värde.
4 Kärleken är tålmodig, god och hänsynsfull, aldrig misstänksam eller avundsjuk, aldrig skrytsam eller stolt,
5 och aldrig överlägsen, självisk eller fräck. Kärleken kräver inte att få sin egen vilja fram. Den är inte irriterad över andra, inte lättretad och den lägger knappast märke till när andra handlar fel.
6 Den är aldrig glad över orättvisan, men gläder sig när sanningen segrar.
7 Kärleken är trogen vad det än kostar. Den förväntar sig alltid det bästa, hoppas i det längsta och är beredd att uthärda allt.
8 Alla de andliga gåvor som Gud ger kommer en dag att ta slut, men kärleken lever vidare i evighet. En dag kommer gåvan att profetera att upphöra, de många språken att tystna och kunskapen att ta slut.
9 All vår kunskap och allt vårt profeterande är bara detaljer i en underbar helhet och har därför sin begränsning.
10 När vi en gång ser den fullkomliga verkligheten, behöver vi inte längre dessa gåvor, som trots att de är underbara ändå är otillräckliga.
11 När jag var barn talade och tänkte och resonerade jag som ett barn, men sedan jag blev vuxen sträcker sig mina tankar mycket längre och jag har lagt av det som är barnsligt.
12 På samma sätt kan vi bara se och förstå en del av Guds storhet nu. Det är som spegelbilden i en orolig vattenyta. Men en dag ska vi se honom i hans fullhet, ansikte mot ansikte. Allt det som jag nu vet är ofullkomligt, men då ska jag veta allt precis som Gud vet allt om mig nu.
13 När allt annat går under finns tre saker ändå kvar - tron, hoppet och kärleken - men störst av dem är kärleken.

getting more hungry for the word?

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Karl /GODCENTRIC
Visionary Media
the creative submitted to the divine.
Husband of my amazing wife Aleshia
Klumsy@xtra.co.nz

quote:

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its much more solid 00 than C++

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In the way that C# is ? ( Yes, I knew the link to Delphi there ). I *hate * that, having to have a static main method because everything must be in a class feels like a straitjacket to me. OO is not the solution to every problem, being not constrained to it in C++ is a big plus for me.

Or maybe I am a C++ zealot. I would like to learn Delphi sometime though, I like to know as many languages as I can. I'm learning Java at home at the moment, I already do a lot of C# at work. It has some really great stuff in it, no doubt about that.

[This message has been edited by CobraA1 (edited April 29, 2003).]

Angel, It must be someone else your're thinking of, I've only been here for about a week I think...

Regarding the programming parts, everyone have showed so much knowledge about it so I don't think I have to interfere with that...

Today is the first trial of being completely without nicotine for a complete day, and quite frankly I'm not sure I will make it...
My head is spinning and I'm sweatting like a pig and have a very hard time concentrating.. let me tell you that if it gets any worse than this I'll give up.. Even my fingers hurt... I will probably not spend very much time here today...

Take Care
Andreas

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

catch you around sometime soon.

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Karl /GODCENTRIC
Visionary Media
the creative submitted to the divine.
Husband of my amazing wife Aleshia
Klumsy@xtra.co.nz

@Christian: Actually, I do want it to be hard, I want to fight it. If it was to easy to quit, i wouldn't. Because if that was the case I could quit "later"..

See you later

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

--D-SIPL

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If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that suggests you tried

Graceworks Interactive

The following our some encouraging sayings

A smile is a curve that sets a lot of things straight

(frogot the rest)

P.S. When you look at nature... a beautiful streem (sp) going down into a river with roses everywhere or maybe just a funny little dog or a cute little girl smiling, do you see millions of years our progress or the image of a mighty God (not a look a like... hope you'll get what im saying)

[This message has been edited by Wide Awake (edited June 22, 2003).]

quote:

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Wide Awake
I used to be what a lot would call a fundementalist christian but that's because some people don't like seeing people truly trying to follow God, or don't want to feel guilty

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[This message has been edited by ArchAngel (edited June 22, 2003).]

Thank you for posting Wide Awake, I've seen some of the movies you're talking about but not all, I guess I have to take a vcr-weekend sometime soon

quote:

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A smile is a curve that sets a lot of things straight

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What I'm into for now is still trying to keep away from Nicotine, I managed to be free for about two weeks, and then I fell down the pit again So now I have to start all over again!!!

Later when I have some spare time I'll buy myself a bible to study,
I need to figure out if this is something I can believe in or if all I find is lies. <- Don't mean to be offensive, until I've read it myself I can't have a firm opinion on it.

@D-SIPL, You won't loose anything on quiting it, I was only free from nicotine for about two weeks but I felt so much better about myself during that time. You won't regret it when you're done.

Cheers
/MetalMan

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

quote:

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MetalMan:
This thing still alive?

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Well, it appeared to have died.. but was resurrected by Wide awake.

quote:

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need to figure out if this is something I can believe in or if all I find is lies. <- Don't mean to be offensive, until I've read it myself I can't have a firm opinion on it.

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alvin
p.s. i am also gonna re-post this on a new thread just to make sure everyone knows about this radio station.

This thread surely was a hard kill =)

Anyway, I haven't had any experience in using 3ds files in Delphi,
but I'd suggest reading up on general Direct3D issues on the net and
there are loads of free components to use that allows you to load different kind of 3D models into delphi, can't remember a single one for now though

Anyway, I usually don't create games in Delphi, (I use Blitz) but if you
have any other questions regarding Delphi I'd be happy to provide an answer...

Take care and good luck
/MetalMan

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Don't hate me for who I am, hate me for what I do instead...

http://www.torry.net/directx.htm

Grtz,
Vincent