Sunspots 778

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: Some hard-working Japanese created a mile-long wooden Xylophone that plays "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," by Bach.

Christianity: (and Politics) An article pointing out how Christianity is privileged, not persecuted, in the US.

Christianity Today says that those of us who oppose protesters who want to open up the country should have compassion on them.

Computing: Gizmodo reports that accepting a lot of seemingly random Facebook Friend requests makes it more likely that you will be a target for questionable Facebook stuff.

Listverse tells us how telemarketers work.

Gizmo's Freeware reports on a free (you don't even have to register) on-line tool that enhances and enlarges pictures.

Education: Microsoft Word has started flagging the use of a double space at the end of a sentence. Some of you aren't going to like it. The article tells how to bypass that AI correction.


Environment: Earther reports that the Trump Administration is planning to allow Uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, which, says Earther, is unnecessary -- we don't have a shortage.
 
Science: Gizmodo reports that there seem to be several objects in our solar system that were captured from some other star's system.

I never thought of this one, but why not? Scientists are looking for DNA in streams, and finding out about land animals from the DNA they leave behind, according to The Scientist.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight notes the retirement of Muffet McGraw as head women's basketball coach at Notre Dame, and suggests that achieving as many wins as she had will be nearly impossible in a few years. (Three active coaches have more wins than McGraw's 934.)

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

Cheese in the Bible

According to the Wikipedia, cheese-making goes back perhaps as much as 10,000 years. During that time, several methods and materials have been used -- just look at the cheese display in a good grocery store. (Maybe you should wait a while to do this.)

I did a search for "cheese" in the Bible, and found just three mentions, as follows:

1 Samuel 17:18 ... and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand; and see how your brothers are doing, and bring back news.” (This is part of the story of David and Goliath. All scripture from the World English Bible, public domain.)

2 Samuel 17:29 ... honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat; for they said, “The people are hungry, weary, and thirsty in the wilderness.” (This is when David and those loyal to him left Jerusalem to escape Absalom and his followers. A rich man fed the group.)
 
Job 10:10 Haven’t you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? (Part of Job's long complaint.)

I expected to find more references, but that was it. As far as I know, no one knows for sure what kind of cheese is referred to in any of these verses.

Thanks for reading! Eat some cheese.

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 30

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

There may be cases in which the answer is a refusal, because the request is not according to God’s Word, as when Moses asked to enter Canaan.  But still, there was an answer:  God did not leave His servant in uncertainty as to His will.  The gods of the heathen are dumb and cannot speak.  Our Father lets His child know when He cannot give him what he asks, and he withdraws his petition, even as the Son did in Gethsemane.  Both Moses the servant and Christ the Son knew that what they asked was not according to what the Lord had spoken:  their prayer was the humble supplication whether it was not possible for the decision to be changed.  God will teach those who are teachable and give Him time, by His Word and Spirit, whether their request be according to His will or not.  Let us withdraw the request, if it be not according to God’s mind, or persevere till the answer come.  Prayer is appointed to obtain the answer.  It is in prayer and its answer that the interchange of love between the Father and His child takes place.

Sunspots 777

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Christianity: He Lives argues that there are only two kinds of  God's laws.

Christianity Today argues that gullibility is not a spiritual gift, and notes that evangelical Christians are more likely to fall for conspiracy theories than the population at large.

GeoChristian reviews a book about the interaction/discussion between a young-earth creationist, Todd Wood, and an evolutionary creationist, Darrel Falk. They learned to respect each other as Christians.

Relevant has an essay on how Ecclesiastes resonates with the current pandemic.

Environment: NPR reports on a study that shows that outdoor cats have a big impact on birds and small quadrupeds.

Humor: Gizmodo reports that we are living in the golden age of crossword puzzles.
 
Politics: (or something) The US Postal Service is in financial trouble, and some people are suggesting that we buy stamps, as a way of helping it, according to NPR.

FiveThirtyEight discusses what happens if a presidential candidate dies or can't run for office for other reasons. (We have the two oldest candidates ever, running.)

Science: Gizmodo on "Why is it so hard to figure out if the Corona virus is airborne?"

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.
Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, 29

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

According to this teaching of the Master, prayer consists of two parts, has two sides, a human and a Divine.  The human is the asking, the Divine is the giving.  Or, to look at both from the human side, there is the asking and the receiving—the two halves that make up a whole.  It is as if He would tell us that we are not to rest without an answer, because it is the will of God, the rule in the Father’s family:  every childlike believing petition is granted.  If no answer comes, we are not to sit down in the sloth that calls itself resignation, and suppose that it is not God’s will to give an answer.  No; there must be something in the prayer that is not as God would have it, childlike and believing; we must seek for grace to pray so that the answer may come.  It is far easier to the flesh to submit without the answer than to yield itself to be searched and purified by the Spirit, until it has learnt to pray the prayer of faith.

It is one of the terrible marks of the diseased state of Christian life in these days, that there are so many who rest content without the distinct experience of answer to prayer. They pray daily, they ask many things, and trust that some of them will be heard, but knowlittle of direct definite answer to prayer as the rule of daily life.  And it is this the Father wills:  He seeks daily intercourse with His children in listening to and granting their petitions. He wills that I should come to Him day by day with distinct requests; He wills day by day to do for me what I ask.  It was in His answer to prayer that the saints of old learned to know God as the Living One, and were stirred to praise and love (Ps. xxxiv., lxvi. 19, cxvi. 1).  Our Teacher waits to imprint this upon our minds:  prayer and its answer, the child asking and the father giving, belong to each other.

Sunspots 776

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: A fantasy picture about conquering the Corona virus. 

Speculative Faith lists and describes the most original fantastic stories of all time.

Christianity: Christianity Today reports that Easter Sunday set a record for YouVersion (A Bible application) use. Over 40 million used it that day.

Environment: Gizmodo reports that the Trump administration continues to try to remove restrictions on the release of Mercury into the environment, based on a flawed analysis.

Health: FiveThirtyEight realizes that Dr. Anthony Fauci actually predicted the situation we are in now, over a year ago.

(And Etiquette) A Gizmodo writer suggests that the curtsy be brought back, as a form of mutual acknowledgement.

A FiveThirtyEight writer tells us why we have reacted more strongly, as a world, to COVID-19 than to Ebola, Swine Flu, or SARS.

NPR says that we don't need to disinfect our groceries after we bring them in.

Humor: (or something) NPR, and other outlets, report that jigsaw puzzle sales are way up.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight on why Bernie Sanders lost to Joe Biden.

On March 13th, President Trump announced a number of steps toward fighting the COVID-9 virus. NPR reports on how these initiatives are going, a month later. Basically, the government is doing the things it can do itself, but the joint private-public initiatives that were promised haven't materialized, mostly because the White House, apparently, made them up.

Science: To quote the Gizmodo article's title: "Birds are judging you by your outfit."

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, 29

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

‘Ask, and it shall be given you.’  Christ has no mightier stimulus to persevering prayer in His school than this.  As a child has to prove a sum to be correct, so the proof that we have prayed aright is, the answer.  If we ask and receive not, it is because we have not learned to pray aright.  Let every learner in the school of Christ therefore take the Master’s word in all simplicity:  Every one that asketh, receiveth.  He had good reasons for speaking so unconditionally.  Let us beware of weakening the Word with our human wisdom.  When He tells us heavenly things, let us believe Him:  His Word will explain itself to him who believes it fully.  If questions and difficulties arise, let us not seek to have them settled before we accept the Word.  No; let us entrust them all to Him:  it is His to solve them:  our work is first and fully to accept and hold fast His promise.  Let in our inner chamber, in the inner chamber of our heart too, the Word be inscribed in letters of light:  Every one that asketh, receiveth.

Sunspots 775

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity: (and Finance) NPR reports that the government will pay pastor's salaries, treating churches as small businesses hit by orders to close.

Computing: Gizmo reports on security problems and nuisance attacks on Zoom meetings.

Health: FiveThirtyEight, which is really good at crunching data, explains why it's really difficult to model COVID-19.

And FiveThirtyEight discusses the effects of handwashing.

Politics: Gizmodo asks whether the President could cancel the November Presidential election.

Science: The Scientist reports that mice have facial expressions.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.

Thanks for looking!

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, 28

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. The previous post is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color.

That the Lord should have thought it needful in so many forms to repeat the truth, is a lesson of deep import.  It proves that He knows our heart, how doubt and distrust toward God are natural to us, and how easily we are inclined to rest in prayer as a religious work without an answer.  He knows too how, even when we believe that God is the Hearer of prayer, believing prayer that lays hold of the promise, is something spiritual, too high and difficult for the half-hearted disciple.  He therefore at the very outset of His instruction to those who would learn to pray, seeks to lodge this truth deep into their hearts:  prayer does avail much; ask and ye shall receive; every one that asketh, receiveth. This is the fixed eternal law of the kingdom:  if you ask and receive not, it must be because there is something amiss or wanting in the prayer.  Hold on; let the Word and the Spirit teach you to pray aright, but do not let go the confidence He seeks to waken:  Every one that asketh, receiveth.

Thanks for reading!

"Be not afraid"

This YouTube video is of a portion of Mendelssohn's Elijah, concluding with the "Be not afraid" chorus. Well sung and played, with excellent videography and good closed captioning. The message rings true, too. The words are from the bible, using King James type English. (This link leads to a table, showing biblical references for the libretto.)

Sunspots 774

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else: (No April Fools' jokes

here)

Christianity: Christianity Today discusses the impact of Corrie ten Boom.

Some churches are meeting during various varieties of shutting down, according to Christianity Today.
 
Computing: Gizmo's freeware recommends a note-taking application, which has several interesting features, and is, of course, free.

NPR discusses attempts to prevent false information on Facebook and other platforms. 

Education: A National Emergency Library will lend you over a million digitized books.

Health: (and politics) FiveThirtyEight on why we shouldn't "just try" drugs in the hope that some such will  be an effective treatment for COVID-19.

Humor: (and Engineering) Gizmodo put up videos of 11 really cool Lego creations, which, among other things, will vacuum up Legos, and sort them.

Philosophy: (And Science, and Christianity) Christianity Today has a fine article examining the possibility of a multiverse (or multiverses) and the implications thereof. Part of the impetus for the article was the Spider-verse movie.


Politics: FiveThirtyEight discusses remote voting by members of Congress.

Science: Gizmodo reports that some squid, living in darkness, deep in the ocean, apparently communicate by glowing.

Gizmodo also reports that seismic activity levels are down, because many of us are staying home.

Earther reports on a bacterium that consumes polyurethane, a plastic that is, otherwise, almost impossible to break down.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.
Thanks for looking!