People often complain about the cost of software - the cost of hardware, the cost of running a computer system in general. The biggest complaint that I hear (and feel) is that once you buy something, pretty soon it goes out of date and you have to buy it all over again.

Many of these complaints are particularly levelled at Microsoft, the cost of the operating system, then the cost of Office over the top of that - then they bring out new operating systems and expect you to pay for that again too!

But there are some great Microsoft products that are FREE - yes Absolutely free! I like free, but often we shy away from free, because we think there has to be a catch. But I want to share with you two products from Microsoft that are free, and don't have a sting in the tail.

Microsoft has been accused of creating products that from a security perspective are weak - ie. Able to be attacked by viruses. So to counter this, and to be a good corporate citizen they launched the Microsoft Security Suite - this is a free product available to any user of genuine Windows.

And in my humble opinion it is great! I have been surfing the web for a LONG time, ever since I had my first dial up modem to get onto text based sites to play games or look up the weather and you know I have never had a virus! I believe this is because I use the internet mainly for research and information, not for game playing or searching out morally suspect things. But in this world we cannot, or at least should not go online without virus protection. This solution from Microsoft is good - especially good because it is lightweight, meaning it does not seem to have any negative impact on system performance. I have had many virus programs over the years that you know when they are there - because your system slows down. Or it continually pops up with annoying little windows just to say "Hi, I'm here - I'm working!" Not so with Microsoft Security Essentials - it just does it thing - in the background, no fuss no fanfare - I like it! When I work on a computer I just want to do that - work on it - not having to wade through a series of windows or dialog boxes to clear my desktop so I can start.

In fact our Christian walks should be like this - just done - without pomp, without fanfare, just constant. To follow Christ first we must believe He is the Son of God, and He asks us to love God and to love others. This is the day to day activity of the believer - to love, not just those who love us, but also those who do not. And when we live this- we need not draw attention to ourselves, saying look at me, look at how good I am - no, instead we need to allow our lives, our actions, our attitudes to reflect Christ and just work quietly, consistently and give all praise, glory and honour to the one who deserves it.