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!

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, 27

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'
Or, The Certainty of the Answer to Prayer.
‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened,’—Matt. vii. 7, 8.
‘Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.’—Jas. iv. 3.

OUR Lord returns here in the Sermon on the Mount a second time to speak of prayer. The first time He had spoken of the Father who is to be found in secret, and rewards openly, and had given us the pattern prayer (Matt. vi. 5-15).  Here He wants to teach us what in all Scripture is considered the chief thing in prayer:  the assurance that prayer will be heard and answered.  Observe how He uses words which mean almost the same thing, and each time repeats the promise so distinctly: ‘Ye shall receive, ye shall find, it shall be opened unto you;’ and then gives as ground for such assurance the law of the kingdom:  ‘He that asketh, receiveth; he that seeketh, findeth; to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.’  We cannot but feel how in this sixfold repetition He wants to impress deep on our minds this one truth, that we may and must most confidently expect an answer to our prayer.  Next to the revelation of the Father’s love, there is, in the whole course of the school of prayer, not a more important lesson than this:  Every one that asketh, receiveth.

In the three words the Lord uses, ask, seek, knock, a difference in meaning has been sought.  If such was indeed His purpose, then the first, ASK, refers to the gifts we pray for. But I may ask and receive the gift without the Giver.  SEEK is the word Scripture uses of God Himself; Christ assures me that I can find Himself.  But it is not enough to find God in time of need, without coming to abiding fellowship:  KNOCK speaks of admission to dwell with Him and in Him.  Asking and receiving the gift would thus lead to seeking and finding the Giver, and this again to the knocking and opening of the door of the Father’s home and love.  One thing is sure:  the Lord does want us to count most  certainly on it that asking, seeking, knocking, cannot be in vain:  receiving an answer, finding God, the opened heart and home of God, are the certain fruit of prayer.

Sunspots 773

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

Christianity: Relevant tells us about St. Patrick.

Relevant also tells us some things to remember when we get anxious.


Computing: Gizmodo compares several streaming services.

Finance: FiveThirtyEight tells us that the restaurant business is hurting badly, and gives state-by-state data. Restaurant employees, or suddenly laid off workers, are hurting even worse.

Health: Lifehacker tells us why we shouldn't name diseases after locations.

The virus is everywhere! Grammarphobia tells us what "deadly" means.

Politics: (and Health and Finance) Gizmodo reports on some Senators who may have had advance warning of a stock market collapse, and who sold stock before the panic set in.


(and Health and Education) Relevant reports that a Liberty University professor has openly criticized Jerry Falwell, head of the University, for his bizarre theories on the origin of COVID-19, and for requiring employees to work on campus. Here's more on that same story, from later, also from Relevant, which may explain Falwell's actions, at least to some extent.


Science: The Scientist reports that some beetle larvae are able to live and grow on polystyrene, a plastic. This may mean that there is hope for getting out from under the load of plastic we are adding to the environment.

The Scientist also reports on the skull of a very tiny dinosaur, preserved in amber.

Gizmodo reports on NASA's detailed photographs of an asteroid that is scheduled to be landed on, sampled, and have the samples returned to earth.

FiveThirtyEight describes how COVID-19 tests actually work.

Sports: March Madness, sort of. FiveThirtyEight describes the women's NCAA basketball tournament that wasn't.

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, 26

This is the final excerpt from Murray's discussion of the Lord's Prayer:

‘And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’  Our daily bread, the pardon of our sins, and then our being kept from all sin and the power of the evil one, in these three petitions all our personal need is comprehended.  The prayer for bread and pardon must be accompanied by the surrender to live in all things in holy obedience to the Father’s will, and the believing prayer in everything to be kept by the power of the indwelling Spirit from the power of the evil one. Children of God! it is thus Jesus would have us to pray to the Father in heaven.  O let His Name, and Kingdom, and Will, have the first place in our love; His providing, and pardoning, and keeping love will be our sure portion.  So the prayer will lead us up to the true child-life:  the Father all to the child, the Father all for the child.  We shall understand how Father and child, the Thine and the Our, are all one, and how the heart that begins its prayer with the God-devoted THINE, will have the power in faith to speak out the OUR too.  Such prayer will, indeed, be the fellowship and interchange of love, always bringing us back in trust and worship to Him who is not only the Beginning but the End:  ‘FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER, AMEN.’  Son of the Father, teach us to pray, ‘OUR FATHER.’

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.

Sunspots 772

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

Christianity: (And Politics) Christianity Today reports on a survey that indicates that most white evangelicals do not like the President's behavior, but do like some of the policies that he has pushed. 

Christianity Today reports that regular church-goers are less likely to perceive the threat of the COVID-19 virus.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware reports on a site that helps you be really private when on-line.

Listverse tells us about 10 flaws of the Wikipedia. (I still use it)l
 
Health: (or something) Listverse debunks some myths about washing your clothes.

A COVID19 tracker, that gives numbers of those testing positive and negative in each state, and the numbers of deaths.

(and Politics) Relevant reports that Jerry Falwell, head of Liberty University, believes that the recent virus outbreak was caused deliberately by North Korea, and maybe China, or was a politically motivated attempt to bring down President Trump. The Scientist, on the other hand, reports that at least one Chinese official says that the US started the spread of the disease in China. (President Trump has also complained about this action by some part of the Chinese establishment.)

History: Gizmodo reports on recent discoveries related to ritualistic sports, involving a court, and a rubber ball, in Mesomerica.

Relevant reports that Martin Luther had some good advice for communities threatened with a pandemic.

Science: The Scientist reports that some beetle larvae are able to live and grow on polystyrene, a plastic. This may mean that there is hope for getting out from under the load of plastic we are adding to the environment.

The Scientist also reports on the skull of a very tiny dinosaur, preserved in amber.

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, 24

This is another excerpt from Murray's discussion of the Lord's Prayer. God willing, there will be another excerpt from this discussion, posted next Sunday:

‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’  As bread is the first need of the body, so forgiveness for the soul.  And the provision for the one is as sure as for the other.  We are children but sinners too; our right of access to the Father’s presence we owe to the precious blood and the forgiveness it has won for us.  Let us beware of the prayer for forgiveness becoming a formality:  only what is really confessed is really forgiven.  Let us in faith accept the forgiveness as promised:  as a spiritual reality, an actual transaction between God and us, it is the entrance into all the Father’s love and all the privileges of children. Such forgiveness, as a living experience, is impossible without a forgiving spirit to others: as forgiven expresses the heavenward, so forgiving the earthward, relation of God’s child. In each prayer to the Father I must be able to say that I know of no one whom I do not heartily love.

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.

Sunspots 771

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to

someone else:

Christianity: Relevant reports on a study that showed that graduates of Christian colleges care more about others, and less about making money, than graduates of secular universities.

Relevant also tells us about 4 things that Jesus never said, but that He is often, er, said to have said.

And a Relevant writer says that Christianity isn't just a relationship, but it's a religion.

And Relevant interviews Eugene Cho, new leader of Bread for the World. Cho has a lot to say about Christians and politics.

He Lives reminds us that not everything created on day six was good.

Computing: Gizmo's Freeware suggests a program that will help you recover log-ins and product keys.

Politics: (sort of) Gizmodo reports that adding more lanes to highways increases highway congestion.

(and Christianity) Relevant reports that President Trump, once more, disputes Christ's teachings about dealing with one's enemies.


Science: (and Health) NPR reports that gene repair on a person (not on a cell culture), to cure a specific disease, has been attempted.

NPR also reports that global warming is affecting grasshoppers, and that may be a warning for the rest of us.

Gizmodo reports that there may be an explanation for dark matter, and that the explanation involves newly conceived configurations of quarks.

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

Thanks for looking!

Was the original creation perfect?

Many Christians believe that the creation was perfect before the Fall. Perhaps. But the Bible doesn't really say that.

A search for the Hebrew word meaning "perfect," in the Blueletter Bible, from the King James Version, results in 91 instances, in 85 verses. (If anyone needs reminding, the Old Testament was mostly in Hebrew, and the New Testament was mostly in Greek, so searching for a Hebrew word doesn't result in any New Testament occurrences.) The first three instances of "perfect" are as follows: The superscript, and/or link, right after the word, perfect, below, is a link to the results of the broader search.

 Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect ^H8549 in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

 Gen 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. ^H8549

 Exo 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, ^H8549 a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

These three instances refer to the attitudes of two humans, servants of God, and to an animal sacrifice. Most of the uses of perfect in the Old Testament are like these.

A search for "good" also gives results. The first occurrences are in Genesis 1-3, about some aspect of created entities -- "behold, it was good," or "it was very good."

Then, there are the next two occurrences, one of which is translated into a different English word, rather than good:

Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; ^H2896 and they took them wives of all which they chose.

Gen 15:15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good ^H2896 old age.

One of these is a description of female attractiveness, and one is related to living a good, long life.

However attractive a woman might be, or, actually, several women, it is hard to believe that they were all perfect, or perfectly attractive. Close, maybe, but not perfect. And it is difficult to believe that a good, long life (Abraham's is the one in Genesis 15) was perfect. He was a good man, an example of faith, but he made some mistakes, and fell short of perfection. He allowed his wife to talk him into siring a child with a servant girl, and he lied to other men, saying that Sarah wasn't his wife, when she was. Most likely, there were other failings, not mentioned specifically in the Bible. His life was good, not perfect.

The word perfect is not used in describing the created world. Rather, "good," or "very good," is found in the first part of Genesis. I checked the translations of Genesis 1:31, which summarizes God's creative activity, and none of the English versions of the Bible use the word, perfect, which, as shown above, was used in other places in the Old Testament. They all use very good.

For this, and other reasons, it appears that saying that the world, as created, was perfect, is reading something into scripture that isn't there.

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, 23

This is another excerpt from Murray's discussion of the Lord's Prayer. God willing, there will be more excerpts from this discussion later:

‘Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.’  This petition is too frequently applied alone to the suffering of the will of God. In heaven God’s will is done, and the Master teaches the child to ask that the will may be done on earth just as in heaven:  in the spirit of adoring submission and ready obedience.  Because the will of God is the glory of heaven, the doing of it is the blessedness of heaven.  As the will is done, the kingdom of heaven comes into the heart.  And wherever faith has accepted the Father’s love, obedience accepts the Father’s will.  The surrender to, and the prayer for a life of heaven-like obedience, is the spirit of childlike prayer.

‘Give us this day our daily bread.’  When first the child has yielded himself to the Father in the care for His Name, His Kingdom, and His Will, he has full liberty to ask for his daily bread.  A master cares for the food of his servant, a general of his soldiers, a father of his child.  And will not the Father in heaven care for the child who has in prayer given himself up to His interests?  We may indeed in full confidence say:  Father, I live for Thy honour and Thy work; I know Thou carest for me.  Consecration to God and His will gives wonderful liberty in prayer for temporal things:  the whole earthly life is given to the Father’s loving care.

This post continues what is intended to be 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.

Sunspots 770

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

Christianity: Christianity Today has posted an annotated list of important African-American theologians.


And a Christianity Today writer discusses her same-sex attraction.


Relevant reports that church membership is related to age -- older people are more likely to be members, and that a substantial minority of Christians are going to more than one church.


Computing: Gizmo's Freeware points us to thousands of sounds that can be used freely.
 
Environment: (And Christianity) A good article in Relevant on why Christians care for the environment.Health: Joel Duff has been thinking about the so-called Corona virus, and doubts that the US response is sufficient.

Politics: Relevant reports on a study that shows President Trump's popularity is significantly less among women.

Science: There's an article in New Scientist, stating that earth has acquired another moon, which is about the size of a car.

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

Thanks for looking!