Joomla! the Open Source Master?

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Last night I started to learn Joomla! I must admit that I didn’t know anything about Open Source Content Management Systems.

In the first place, I did some research to see it it is worth learning Joomla! I found out that Joomla! is a really good CMS. It has a lot of free modules, plug-ins and so on. Later I stumbled on the fact that most of them, have a free entry version, and the really good cookies are for money. So no more Open Source anymore.

I am just a beginner, so it will take some time until I’ll show you what I come up with. Hopefully it will not be too long.

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SNOWY snowboards – Back & Exo

For my project Program to Stimulate Sales at Snowy I did 2 designs for the snowboards Back (freeride) and Exo (freestyle)

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For this project I also did the Snowy logo, Snowy cap/hat, Snowy t-shirts.

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What To Be Thankful About

Bible passage

(1) I love the Lord, because He has heard [and now hears] my voice and my supplications. (2) Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. (3) The cords and sorrows of death were around me, and the terrors of Sheol (the place of the dead) had laid hold of me; I suffered anguish and grief (trouble and sorrow). (4) Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech You, save my life and deliver me! (5) Gracious is the Lord, and [rigidly] righteous; yes, our God is merciful. (6) The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He helped and saved me. (7) Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. (8) For You have delivered my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling and falling. (9) I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. (10) I believed (trusted in, relied on, and clung to my God), and therefore have I spoken [even when I said], I am greatly afflicted. Psalm 116:1-10

My thoughts

It happens to me to lack joy, to be happy, to forget to smile. But, today, I was reminded once again why should I be happy and thankful to my Lord.

So why should I love my God and be thankful to Him?

  • He listens to my voice, He’s not indifferent,
  • He listens to my requests, and He can change His mind about stuff,
  • He is merciful, righteous and gracious,
  • He preserves the simple, the people with no wickedness, so I pray that I could be like that,
  • He helped and saved me,
  • He dealt bountifully with me…
    • saving my soul from death,
    • my eyes from tears,
    • and my feet from stumbling and falling.

Therefore, I shall:

  • lift up the cup of salvation and deliverance,
  • call on the name of the Lord,
  • pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people.

Big Problems Resolved With Small Sacrifice

Bible passage

(1) There happened to be there a base and contemptible fellow named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite. He blew a trumpet and said, We have no portion in David and no inheritance in the son of Jesse! Every man to his tents, O Israel! (2) So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba son of Bichri; but the men of Judah stayed faithfully with their king, from the Jordan to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 20:1-2

(15) And they came and besieged Sheba in Abel of Beth-maacah, and they cast up a siege mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the men with Joab battered and undermined the wall to make it fall. (16) Then a wise woman of the city cried, Hear, hear! Say to Joab, Come here so I can speak to you. (17) And when he came near her, the woman said, Are you Joab? He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Hear the words of your handmaid. He answered, I am listening. (18) Then she said, People used to say, Let them but ask counsel at Abel, and so they settled the matter. (19) I am one of the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city which is a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? (20) Joab answered, Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy! (21) That is not true. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall. (22) Then the woman in her wisdom went to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and cast it down to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his own home. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king. 2 Samuel 20:15-22

My thoughts

The people from the Sheba in Abel of Beth had a really big problem. They were all going to die because of this one man that was in their walled city. They were saved by this wise woman. She understood that they have to cast out the evil from among themselves, so they should live.

Nowadays we live in a strange community. It seems that nothing goes right. The non-rightness people prosper and all the other suffer. But actually all of us have issues with our correctness.

Each of us are like that walled city. So we could really live we have to give up on the bad things. We have to accept God as He is, and let Him cleanse us. If we want to live our life to the full, we have to accept Him, as God says I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). John 10:10

Related posts:

The Real Rescue

Bible passage

(29) And those who passed by kept reviling Him and reproaching Him abusively in harsh and insolent language, wagging their heads and saying, Aha! You Who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, (30) Now rescue Yourself [from death], coming down from the cross! (31) So also the chief priests, with the scribes, made sport of Him to one another, saying, He rescued others [from death]; Himself He is unable to rescue. (32) Let the Christ (the Messiah), the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see [it] and trust in and rely on Him and adhere to Him! Those who were crucified with Him also reviled and reproached Him [speaking abusively, harshly, and insolently]. Mark 15:29-32

My thoughts

I would not say much in words about this. I pity the people of that times, and the ones nowadays that do not understand Christ’s sacrifice. They mocked Jesus saying that He rescued others, but is unable to rescue Himself. Actually, in that moments He was doing the actual rescuing of all the people that believe in His sacrifice. His power didn’t stay in the ability to go down the cross. Of coarse He could have done that. But, His was in staying there, on the cross, for me and you. He stood there, he suffered instead of me, the was the supreme sacrifice. He died so I could live. And not the life as we see it now. Not this earthly life, but the eternal life.

Carefully choose you friends

A good lesson that I learned this morning is that I should carefully choose my friends. By friends, I mean the ones that give me advices, that show me what I should do in troubled times. Because a friend indeed is one when you’re in need.

Amnon loved David’s daughter – Tamar – and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her (2nd Samuel 13:2B). Amnon saw himself weak, with not enough courage to go to his dad – David – and talk with him about this. As we see in 2nd Samuel 13:13B (speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you) it was possible Amnon to marry Tamar. Amnon had a friend – Jonadab. This guy was a very cunning man (2n Samuel 13:3). Cunning is not wisdom. People might see the same, but they are so different in their essence. As we find in Proverbs 9:10, the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding. So, one good point is that when I choose someone to be my friend, to advise me, he/she should in the first place have a reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord. If this lacks, I can be sure that the advices I get will not take me anywhere good.

Reading the rest of the 2nd Samuel 13 chapter we see that Amnon forces Tamar to sleep with him. The consequences are that Amnon ends up dead by Tamar’s brother – Absalom – and the curse comes down in the family.

The bad friendships examples are further shown. In 2nd Samuel 14:1-23 we see Joab. In the first place I thought that he was a wise man. Joab was indeed devoted to David and did great things for the king, but we can not say that he always acted with wisdom. Joab killed Abner and Absalom.

Further reading I found another bad example – Ahithophel. He was one of David’s advisers/counselors, but he betrayed his king on Absalom’s behalf (While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing. 2nd Samuel 15:12; Now David had been told, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David prayed, “O LORD, turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness.” 2nd Samuel 15:31). If you read 2nd Samuel 15-17 Ahithophel always had bad influence on people. His apogee is described in 2nd Samuel 16:23: Now in those days the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of God. That was how both David and Absalom regarded all of Ahithophel’s advice.

I pray that God would watch over me, so that I would never have such friends.

What do you think about choosing your friends? What advise do you have?

A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna

A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna

taken from

http://www.izmirprotestan.org/docs/Letter_to_the_Global_Church.pdf


Dear friends,

This past week has been filled with much sorrow. Many of you have heard by now of our devastating loss here in an event that took place in Malatya, a Turkish province 300 miles northeast of Antioch, the city where believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). On Wednesday morning, April 18, 2007, 46 year old German Christian and father of three Tilmann Geske prepared to go to his office, kissing his wife goodbye and taking a moment to hug his son and give him the priceless memory, “Goodbye, son. I love you.” Tilmann rented an office space from Zirve Publishing. Zirve was also the location of the Malatya Evangelist Church office. A ministry of the church, Zirve prints and distributes Christian literature to Malatya and nearby cities in Eastern Turkey. In another area of town, 35 year old Pastor Necati Aydin, father of two, said goodbye to his wife, leaving for the office as well. They had a morning Bible Study and prayer meeting that some other believers in town would also be attending. Ugur Yuksel likewise made his way to the Bible study.

None of these three men knew that what awaited them at the Bible study was the ultimate testing and application of their faith, which would conclude with their entrance into glory to receive their crown of righteousness from Christ and honor from all the saints awaiting them in the Lord’s presence.

On the other side of town, ten young men all under 20 years old put into place final arrangements for their ultimate act of faith, living out their love for Allah and hatred of infidels who they felt undermined Islam. Continue reading A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna