Sunspots 934

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*:

Christianity:  Christianity Today considers "replacement theory," the idea that white people are being replace by people of color in the US.

Computing: Gizmodo tells us that bad people can use the web cameras in children's computers to do bad things.

Finances: A Conversation writer tells us that the cost of going to a prom is not growing as fast as the consumer price index.

Food: A Conversation writer tells us that peanut butter is a liquid, and, as such, may be removed from the material you bring on a flight.

(And Ethics, and finances) A Conversation writer says that the US Supreme Court has considered the question of how much space to give animals raised for meat.

Health: A Conversation writer discusses the dangers of obesity.

(and Computing) Gizmodo reports on a study indicating that internet use helps older people to avoid dementia.

Science: A Conversation writer tells us about clothes moths.

Gizmodo reports that Saturn has 145 moons.

A Conversation writer discusses keeping track of where we've been, and what we are doing, using DNA in skin flakes.

NPR reports on when and why butterflies evolved from moths.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view.

Thanks for reading. 

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, 33

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.

‘Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?’—Matt. vii. 9-11

IN these words our Lord proceeds further to confirm what He had said of the certainty of an answer to prayer.  To remove all doubt, and show us on what sure ground His promise rests, He appeals to what every one has seen and experienced here on earth.  We are all children, and know what we expected of our fathers.  We are fathers, or continually see them; and everywhere we look upon it as the most natural thing there can be, for a father to hear his child.  And the Lord asks us to look up from earthly parents, of whom the best are but evil, and to calculate HOW MUCH MORE the heavenly Father will give good gifts to them that ask Him.  Jesus would lead us up to see, that as much greater as God is than sinful man, so much greater our assurance ought to be that He will more surely than any earthly father grant our childlike petitions.  As much greater as God is than man, so much surer is it that prayer will be heard with the Father in heaven than with a father on earth. As simple and intelligible as this parable is, so deep and spiritual is the teaching it contains.  The Lord would remind us that the prayer of a child owes its influence entirely to the relation in which he stands to the parent.  The prayer can exert that influence only when the child is really living in that relationship, in the home, in the love, in the service of the Father.  The power of the promise, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you,’ lies in the loving relationship between us as children and the Father in heaven; when we live and walk in that relationship, the prayer of faith and its answer will be the natural result.  And so the lesson we have today in the school of prayer is this:  Live as a child of God, then you will be able to pray as a child, and as a child you will most assuredly be heard.

Sunspots 717

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

Christianity: USA Today reports on what Southern Baptist leaders want done to stop their sexual abuse crisis.

Threads from Henry's Web has a solid post on how Christians should respond to the Pledge of Allegiance, and related matters.

Christianity Today on how parents should deal with their children's doubts.


Computing: Gizmodo reports that Facebook employees who are supposed to weed out conspiracy theories, violent posts, and the like, are underpaid, and that their jobs affect their mental health adversely. They apparently joke about committing suicide and engage in sexual activity on breaks, as ways of coping.

Education: NPR reports on the large discrepancy between funding of mostly white school districts vs. mostly non-white ones, and explains the reasons for this.

Environment: National Geographic reports that a mammalian species has gone extinct, because of climate change.

Food: A Relevant article says that leftover pizza may make a better breakfast, nutrition-wise, than some cereals. Hmmm.

(And politics) Gizmodo reports that a "soda tax" seems to have worked, in Berkeley, CA. That is, taxing carbonated and sweetened drinks did change people's behavior.

Health: Scientific American reports that listing all the side effects of a drug may actually make it more desirable to listeners, viewers or readers.

WalletHub has studied us, and ranks the most sinful to least sinful states. The methodology is given, too. Nevada is the most sinful. It was the highest state in Greed, 3rd highest in Jealousy, and 6th highest in Lust. Vermont was the least sinful state.

NPR reports that growing up with access to green areas contributes to a healthier life.

Gizmodo reports that the death rate from drug overdoses is considerably higher in the US than in other nations.

Politics: Surprise (or not)! The Trump administration is apparently going to appoint a climate-change denier (who is not trained in climate science) to chair a committee to study global climate change, according to Earther.

Catherine Rampell on President Tariff Man, er, Trump.


Science: NPR reports that an Italian lab is experimenting with a gene drive system that might stamp out African mosquitoes. For more on gene drives, see here.

Gizmodo reports that it is easy to fool people with a disguise.

Gizmodo also reports on the re-discovery of a giant bee, from Indonesia.

NPR reports on locusts, as in plagues of locusts. It turns out that they are common grasshoppers that change appearance and behavior, under stress.

The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, I believe, it is public domain.
Thanks for looking!

Job's grandchildren?

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. 2 There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

4 His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

18 While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you. (World English Bible, public domain)

The Bible doesn't mention Job as having grandchildren through his first ten children. But it does indicate that each of his seven sons had a house of their own, so, most likely, at least some of them also had wives, and children, and perhaps the daughters had husbands, and children. Thus, Job's suffering may have included not only the loss of his good health and material possessions, and the loss of his children, but the loss of his grandchildren.

At the end of the book, Job had more children, the same number as before, and the Bible tells us that he did have grandchildren, and more:

Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters. 14 He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren Happuch. 15 In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, to four generations.

I would have hated to lose my children, and/or my grandchildren, as Job did.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 528

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


Christianity: A list of virtues you should pray that your children develop.

Benjamin L. Corey points out that God hadn't destroyed the US long before the legalization of homosexual marriage, but there had been plenty of reasons why He might have.

Health: National Public Radio reports that lots of us lie to our dentists, claiming that we floss our teeth, when we don't.

Humor: (If they are on someone else's lawn) NPR also reports that the man who is responsible for pink plastic flamingos has died.

A free on-line crossword puzzle generator. (Also for use by classroom teachers.)

Science: Wired reports on the possibility of using yeast organisms to make medical opiates.

Wired also reports on what several common food additives look like before they are added to our food.

And Wired reports on the science of how light is made. (LED, fluorescent, incandescent and fire.)


Image source (public domain)

Sunspots 276

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

Politics:(or Christianity) A genuinely Christian response to the proposed mosque location in Manhattan.

CNN reports that Southern Sudan (which is not yet an independent country) hopes to build cities in the shapes of animals.

Computing:
There's a chapter by chapter summary of the Bible being produced, using a tweet for each chapter.

For kids, including pre-schoolers: Kidopo.com has games, coloring, and other goodies.





Image source (public domain)

Children and childlikeness in the Bible

I recently posted on the concept of simplicity. Today, I am musing about a related concept, childlikeness, or just plain being a child, as the New Testament treats it.

Matthew 18:1-6 is a key passage:

18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. (All scripture quotations from the ESV)

I take this to mean that being a Christian requires a childlike faith -- I must trust Christ to be able to forgive my sins, and trust him as my Lord. I can't atone for my own sins, and I can't reliably guide myself, no matter how intelligent or educated I might be.

Childlikeness, not childishness, is God's ideal for our behavior:
1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

and Ephesians 4:11-16
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

In fact, we are expected to become more mature:
Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Children, not just a childlike attitude, are important to Christ:
Mark 10:13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

See also the first quotation above, which shows their importance.

Thanks for reading! Have a childlike faith, but grow up.

A Golden Rule song for children

I have created, I believe with God's help, a very simple song, based on the Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12, which is:

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (ESV)

Here are the words:

Do to other people,
Do to other people,
Do to other people,
As they should do to you. 

These words may be sung to the tune of the chorus portion of "Jesus Loves Me." That music is in the public domain. See here for more on "Jesus Loves Me."

If these words are useful to you, help yourself.



To the extent possible under law,
the person who associated CC0
with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring
rights to the song lyric in this post.

Ursula K. Le Guin on fantastic literature

The old lady is still sharp! Ursula K. Le Guin, probably the best author of fantastic literature of the last four decades of the previous century, and, so far, in this one, occasionally writes on her craft. One such essay, "The critics, the monsters, and the fantasists. (critics' opinion of fantasy fiction)," was published in the Winter-Spring, 2007, issue of Wordsworth Circle, which article is not, at least currently, freely available on the Internet. (Le Guin is well aware that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote famously about his craft, using some of those same words in his title.) I present a few choice quotes from Le Guin's essay:
I venture a non-defining statement: realistic fiction is drawn towards anthropocentrism, fantasy away from it.

Tolkien's Middle Earth is not just pre-industrial. It is also pre-human and non-human.

In my school for magic on the Isle of Roke in The Earthsea Trilogy, we say that children's books must be included in serious discussion of literature, and one reason we give is that many of the great works of imaginative fiction can be understood and appreciated by a child as well as by an adult--and vice versa. The understanding and appreciation may be different in kind, but its quality is the same, and deserves critical consideration. To throw a book out of serious consideration either because it was written for children, or because it is read by children, is in fact a monstrous act of anti-intellectualism. But it happens daily in academia.

Thanks for reading!