Sunspots 899

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

The Arts: Gizmodo  describes 13 streaming services, ranging from free to ad-supported to paying, that you have probably never heard of.

Tor.com has published an article on Galadriel, as Tolkien portrayed her. (Note that the article isn't based on the upcoming Rings of Power video series.)

Christianity: (or something) A Conversation writer discusses the role of dragons in religions.

A Christianity Today writer writes about the possibility of having artificial intelligences as worship leaders and preachers.

Health: NPR on how sweat that smells stinky protects us.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight reports on Republican election deniers who won their elections.

Science: (or something) CNet tells us about things that make us more attractive to mosquitoes.

*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, excerpt 141

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.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

‘If ye abide in me.’ As a Christian grows in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, he is often surprised to find how the words of God grow too, in the new and deeper meaning with which they come to him. He can look back to the day when some word of God was opened up to him and he rejoiced in the blessing he had found in it. After a time some deeper experience gave it a new meaning, and it was as if he never had seen what it contained. And yet once again, as he advanced in the Christian life, the same word stood before him again as a great mystery, until anew the Holy Spirit led him still deeper into its Divine fulness. One of these ever-growing, never-exhausted words, opening up to us step by step the fulness of the Divine life, is the Master’s precious ‘Abide in me.’ As the union of the branch with the vine is one of growth, never-ceasing growth and increase, so our abiding in Christ is a life process in which the Divine life takes ever fuller and more complete possession of us. The young and feeble believer may be really abiding in Christ up to the measure of his light; it is he who reaches onward to the full abiding in the sense in which the Master understood the words, who inherits all the promises connected with it.

Sunspots 898

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

Christianity: Christianity Today reports on the openness to women in various leadership roles, in Protestant churches.

Education: A Conversation article on violence against teachers by students. About 10% of teachers have been so attacked.

A Conversation writer discusses some ways that the Metaverse (the author doesn't know how to define or describe it) is helping college education.

Finances: NPR reports on how prisoners earn income behind bars, and what the income is.

Science: The Scientist on the energetics of chewing, (It takes a lot of energy.) and the possible relationship to humanoid evolution.

NPR reports that a company is planning to bring back the Tasmanian "tiger," which has been extinct for over 80 years. There are questions about trying to do this.

NPR also reports on some interesting (and possibly dangerous to humans) behavior by orcas/aka killer whales.

A Conversation writer discusses his own research, which indicates that dolphins use "signature whistles -- brief sequences of noise that the animals emit," which are not copies of those emitted by other dolphins, to identify other dolphins.

*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, excerpt 140

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.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

‘If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’—John xv. 7.
In all God’s intercourse with us, the promise and its conditions are inseparable. If we fulfil the conditions, He fulfils the promise. What He is to be to us depends upon what we are willing to be to Him. ‘Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.’ And so in prayer the unlimited promise, Ask whatsoever ye will, has its one simple and natural condition, if ye abide in me. It is Christ whom the Father always hears; God is in Christ, and can only be reached by being in Him; to be IN HIM is the way to have our prayer heard; fully and wholly ABIDING IN HIM, we have the right to ask whatsoever we will, and the promise  that it shall be done unto us.
When we compare this promise with the experiences of most believers, we are startled by a terrible discrepancy. Who can number up the countless prayers that rise and bring no answer? The cause must be either that we do not fulfil the condition, or God does not fulfil the promise. Believers are not willing to admit either, and therefore have devised a way of escape from the dilemma. They put into the promise the qualifying clause our Saviour did not put there—if it be God’s will; and so maintain both God’s integrity and their own. O if they did but accept it and hold it fast as it stands, trusting to Christ to vindicate His truth, how God’s Spirit would lead them to see the Divine propriety of such a promise to those who really abide in Christ in the sense in which He means it, and to confess that the failure
in the fulfilling the condition is the one sufficient explanation of unanswered prayer. And  how the Holy Spirit would then make our feebleness in prayer one of the mightiest motives to urge us on to discover the secret, and obtain the blessing, of full abiding in Christ.

Musing about The Rings of Power, based on J. R. R. Tolkien's works

The Rings of Power, based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, is to be available for streaming on Amazon Prime in a couple of weeks. I have not seen it. I have heard that Amazon has spent a billion dollars or so on the series.

I have read much of Tolkien's work. I have appreciated it. My report on the last book in the Lord of the Rings is here. There are links, in that post, to my musings on more of Tolkien's work.

Tolkien had a large influence on later writers, for example, Elizabeth Moon. The films based on his books were among the most popular of all time.

Tolkien was a Christian. He worshiped regularly as a Catholic. His friendship with C. S. Lewis was one aspect of the conversion of Lewis, one of the most influential Christians of the 20th Century. But some aspects of his work are troubling. There are many gods, for one thing. Evil is often associated with blackness, and good with white. Women are mostly of secondary importance. (There are exceptions, such as Galadriel.)

Was Tolkien a Christian novelist? See here. I don't expect that The Rings of Power, any more than Tolkien's other work, will be preachy, at all. I expect that there will be important moral choices in The Rings of Power. Will there be a Christ-figure, submission to a good Creator, hope in a supernatural being, and other aspects of a Christian world view? I hope so. Will pride, like that of Fëanor, be punished? Punishment for pride is perhaps the main theme of Tolkien's work.

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 897

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

The Arts: NPR has posted photos of lots of fireflies in action.

Politics: A Conversation writer discusses access to White House documents.

Another Conversation writer tells about partisan news consumption. (In other words, getting news from one side of the political divide.)

Yet another Conversation post discusses political activity by members of the military.

Science: Gizmodo reports that a newly discovered species of isopods (aka pill bugs, wood lice, roly polys, and more) can grow up to a half meter or so in length.

The Scientist reports on why doing work that requires thinking makes you feel tired.

The Scientist also has an article about dreaming in animals, and its possible ethical implications.

A Conversation article tells us why animals have tails.

*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, excerpt 139

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.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

Blessed Lord Jesus! I come again to Thee. Every lesson Thou givest me convinces me more deeply how little I know to pray aright. But every lesson also inspires me with hope that Thou art going to teach me, that Thou art teaching me not only to know what prayer should be, but actually to pray as I ought. O my Lord! I look with courage to Thee, the Great Intercessor, who didst pray and dost hear prayer, only that the Father may be glorified, to teach me too to live and to pray to the glory of God.

Saviour! To this end I yield myself to Thee again. I would be nothing. I have given self, as already crucified with Thee, to the death. Through the Spirit its workings are mortified and made dead; Thy life and Thy love of the Father are taking possession of me. A new longing begins to fill my soul, that every day, every hour, that in every prayer the glory of the Father may be everything to me. O my Lord! I am in Thy school to learn this: teach Thou it me.

And do Thou, the God of glory, the Father of glory, my God and my Father, accept the desire of a child who has seen that Thy glory is indeed alone worth living for. O Lord! Show me Thy glory. Let it overshadow me. Let it fill the temple of my heart. Let me dwell in it as revealed in Christ. And do Thou Thyself fulfil in me Thine own good pleasure, that Thy child should find his glory in seeking the glory of his Father. Amen.

Sunspots 896

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

Christianity: Ken Schenck writes about what the Bible says about gender and sex.

Education: A Conversation post on why there is a teacher shortage.

Food: (and Science) Gizmodo reports on developments in lab-grown fish sticks.

Health: (or something) Gizmodo reports that a surgery-performing robot is about to be tested in the International Space Station.

Gizmodo reports that UPS drivers are enduring dangerous heat. There's no A/C  in the trucks, and the rear part of the trucks (where most of the packages are) can get really hot.

Science: A Conversation writer tells us about coyotes in urban environments.

SciTechDaily reports that human genes have been transferred to yeast cells, and apparently work just fine.

Sports: C. Vivian Stringer, first African-American college coach to win 1000 games, has retired.

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

Thanks for reading.

Could there have been animal death before the Fall?, 2nd edition

It is often said that the earth must not be very old, because death could not have occurred before the Fall of Adam and Eve, as told in Genesis 3. When this is said, it means death of non-humans, such as the many generations of animals that would have been needed for, say, the origin of birds from reptiles, by natural selection.

A search has led me to some web pages, all arguing, using the Bible, that there could have been, or even must have been, death of non-human creatures before the Fall. (There are also posts that deny this.)

Here they are:
"No Physical Death Before the Fall?" by Glen Kuban.

"Death Before the Fall: God Created Cellular Death Codes," by Glenn Morton.

"Creation Science Issues: Death Before the Fall of Man," by Greg Neyman. 

 "Animal Death Before the Fall: What Does the Bible Say?" by Lee Irons.

"Was there animal death before the fall?" by Jay Wile.

"Did death occur before the Fall?" by BioLogos.

I have previously posted on a related matter.

None of these take the view that there couldn't have been death before the Fall, but some of them also present reasons why some people believe that there was no such death.

See my posts on David Snoke's book, A Biblical Case for an Old Earth. Snoke argues that the Bible allows the death of animals before the Fall. Here's one such post. Click on the "David Snoke" label at the end of the post to see all of them.

This post is a revision of one from January 2008.

Thank you for reading!

 

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 138

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.  His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

The Father accepts the will, the sacrifice is well-pleasing; the Holy Spirit will seal us within with the consciousness, we are living for God and His glory.

And then what quiet peace and power there will be in our prayers, as we know ourselves through His grace, in perfect harmony with Him who says to us, when He promises to do what we ask: ‘That the Father may be glorified in the Son.’ With our whole being consciously yielded to the inspiration of the Word and Spirit, our desires will be no longer ours but His;  their chief end the glory of God. With increasing liberty we shall be able in prayer to say: Father! Thou knowest, we ask it only for Thy glory. And the condition of prayer-answers, instead of being as a mountain we cannot climb, will only give us the greater confidence that we shall be heard, because we have seen that prayer has no higher beauty or blessedness than this, that it glorifies the Father. And the precious privilege of prayer will become doubly precious because it brings us into perfect unison with the Beloved Son in the wonderful partnership He proposes: ‘You ask, and I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’ precious because it brings us into perfect unison with the Beloved Son in the wonderful partnership He proposes: ‘You ask, and I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’

‘LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY.

Sunspots 895

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

The Arts: (and Christianity) a Tor author discusses the fate of Susan Pevensie in the Narnia books, by C. S. Lewis.

Christianity: (and Politics) Christianity Today examines the question of how behavior changes in Southern whites who have stopped going to church.

Finances: Gizmodo reports that the oil industry has received lots of profit over the past few years, but has cut its workforce drastically.

CNN reports on how Russia is financing the war in Ukraine with African gold, and propping up African dictators.

Science: The Scientist on why a humpback whale recently collided with a small boat.

NPR reports that, although the moon has been thought of as divided into two regions, one too hot, and one too cold for living things, certain geological features on the moon are habitable throughout the lunar cycle, neither too hot or too cold.

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

Thanks for reading.