Sunspots 877

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

The Arts: Gizmodo ranks the 10 best original Star Trek episodes, and James T. Kirk's (William Shatner's) role in them.

Christianity: (and politics) Christianity Today asks why there are no evangelicals on the US Supreme Court.

Computing: A Gizmodo post on how big tech (especially Facebook) has not done what's best for most of us.

Environment: NPR reports that Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in grave danger.

NPR also reports on misinformation used to halt installation of wind turbines.

Finances: Gizmodo points out that Western oil companies paid for much of Putin's war.

Food: NPR reports on making pizza without yeast.

Health: (and politics) FiveThirtyEight on the miserable job of COVID testing by most of the states in the US.

Politics: Vladimir Putin has used the Bible to support his recent actions, according to Relevant.

A Christianity Today author points out the difference in how we treat Ukrainian refugees vs. our treatment of Syrian refugees.

Science: Nature has an opinion piece, arguing that testing the genetics of human embryos is questionable or worse.

Gizmodo reports on a study of the "plumbing" of Yellowstone's geysers. Some interesting underground connections and features.

Gizmodo reports on a really fancy (and, apparently, useful) tape measure.

Gizmodo also shows photos of 7 different kinds of animal camouflage.

The Scientist reports on how a man with no muscle control at all was trained, using a brain implant, to respond in computer-generated text.

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

*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 119

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer and the Trinity. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

‘Whose is this image?’
Or, Prayer in Harmony with the Destiny of Man.
‘He saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?—Matt. xxi. 20.
‘And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’—Gen. i. 26.
‘WHOSE is this image?’ It was by this question that Jesus foiled His enemies, when they thought to take Him, and settled the matter of duty in regard to the tribute. The question and the principle it involves are of universal application. Nowhere more truly than in man himself. The image he bears decides his destiny. Bearing God’s image, he belongs to God: prayer to God is what he was created for. Prayer is part of the wondrous likeness he bears to His Divine original; of the deep mystery of the fellowship of love in which the Three-One has His blessedness, prayer is the earthly image and likeness.
The more we meditate on what prayer is, and the wonderful power with God which it has, the more we feel constrained to ask who and what man is, that such a place in God’s counsels should have been allotted to him. Sin has so degraded him, that from what he is now we can form no conception of what he was meant to be. We must turn back to God’s own record of man’s creation to discover there what God’s purpose was, and what the capacities with which man was endowed for the fulfilment of that purpose.
Man’s destiny appears clearly from God’s language at creation. It was to fill, to subdue, to have dominion over the earth and all in it. All the three expressions show us that man was meant, as God’s representative, to hold rule here on earth. As God’s viceroy he was to fill God’s place: himself subject to God, he was to keep all else in subjection to Him. It was the will of God that all that was to be done on earth should be done through him: the history of the earth was to be entirely in his hands.

Sunspots 876

 

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

Computing: (and music) Gizmodo writes about the amazing capabilities of self-playing pianos.

Health:  Gizmodo on homeopathic "medicine." 

Politics: NPR on when campaigning politicians are allowed to lie (and when they aren't).

Georgia US Senate candidate Herschel Walker doesn't believe in evolution, and has some questions about artificially enhanced human reproduction, says NPR.

FiveThirtyEight on perceived discrimination against whites.

Science: Gizmodo reports that the Webb telescope is working fine, and nearly ready to carry out astronomical science work.

The Scientist reports that fruit flies, in outdoor populations, can evolve in ways that react to environmental stress very rapidly -- within less than a year.

Sports:  (and Christianity) FiveThirtyEight tells us about the solid play of Aliyah Boston of the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks, and about her Christian faith. ( This is the first post I've seen from FiveThirtyEight on an athlete's religious beliefs.)

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

*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 118

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer and the Trinity. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

Here Murray inserted a NOTE:
‘”God hears prayer.” This simplest view of prayer is taken throughout Scripture. It dwells not on the reflex influence of prayer on our heart and life, although it abundantly shows the connection between prayer as an act, and prayer as a state. It rather fixes with great definiteness the objective or real purposes of prayer, to obtain blessing, gifts, deliverances from God. ‘Ask and it shall be given,” Jesus says. ‘However true and valuable the reflection may be, that God, foreseeing and foreordaining all things, has also foreseen and foreordained our prayers as links in the chain of events, of cause and effect, as a real power, yet we feel convinced that this is not the light in which the mind can find peace in this great subject, nor do we think that here is the attractive power to draw us in prayer. We feel rather that such a reflection diverts the attention from the Object whence comes the impulse, life, and strength of prayer. The living God, cotemporary and not merely eternal,1 the living, merciful, holy One, God manifesting Himself to the soul, God saying, “Seek my face;” this is the magnet that draws us, this alone can open heart and lips. . .

Sunspots 875

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

Environment: (and politics) Gizmodo reports on a strange coal-favoring speech by the governor of West Virginia, whose family owns some coal mines. Among other things, he cast doubt on the idea of climate change, but said that God would give us time to alleviate it. Let's hope so.

Finances: Gizmodo explains the price of oil and gas.

Health: Gizmodo reports that regular alcohol use, even in small quantities, is associated with shrinking of the brain.

Humor: (or something) ListVerse tells us some interesting facts about the "rock, paper, scissors" game.

Politics: (or something) Gizmodo reports that smart guns (which require some sort of ID before they can be used) are becoming more acceptable.

NPR reports that Congress has passed legislation that would strengthen the postal service, in bipartisan fashion.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a way to stop murder hornets from migrating away from where they are now: attract the males into traps, using insect sex hormones.

The Scientist reports that some mongolian rodents can, and do, modify their environment, making them more safe.

Gizmodo reports on a fossil mammal from the San Diego area that had saber teeth, but wasn't a member of the cat family.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight analyzes the effect of moving the 3-point line back, in women's college basketball.

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

*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 117

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer and the Trinity. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

Everlasting God! the Three-One and Thrice Holy! in deep reverence would I with veiled face worship before the holy mystery of Thy Divine Being. And if it please Thee, O most glorious God, to unveil aught of that mystery, I would bow with fear and trembling, lest I sin against Thee, as I meditate on Thy glory. Father! I thank Thee that Thou bearest this name not only as the Father of Thy children here on earth, but as having from eternity subsisted as the Father with Thine only-begotten Son. I thank Thee that as Father Thou canst hear our prayer, because Thou hast from eternity given a place in Thy counsels to the asking of Thy Son. I thank Thee that we have seen in Him on earth, what the blessed intercourse was He had with Thee in heaven; and how from eternity in all Thy counsels and decrees there had been room left for His prayer and their answers. And I thank Thee above all that through His true human nature on Thy throne above, and through Thy Holy Spirit in our human nature here below, a way has been opened up by which every human cry of need can be taken up into and touch the Life and the Love of God, and receive in answer whatsoever it shall ask.

Blessed Jesus! in whom as the Son the path of prayer has been opened up, and who givest us assurance of the answer, we beseech Thee, teach Thy people to pray. O let this each day be the sign of our sonship, that, like Thee, we know that the Father heareth us always. Amen.

Sunspots 874

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

Computing: Gizmodo reports that Russia is encouraging software piracy, as part of their attack on Ukraine and the West.

Education: Listverse plays 10 strange animal sounds.

Environment: The Scientist reports that the Amazon Rain Forest may be on the verge of turning into a Savannah ecosystem.:

Health: Fox News reports on a study that indicates that taking daily walks helps prevent Alzheimer's.

Humor: (sort of) Relevant lists over a dozen strangely specific Bibles, such as a camouflaged one.

Science: Gizmodo reports that a Martian rock seems to be stuck in one of the wheels of a Mars rover.

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

*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 116

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer and the Trinity. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

This perfect harmony and union of Divine Sovereignty and human liberty is to us an unfathomable mystery, because God as THE ETERNAL ONE transcends all our thoughts. But let it be our comfort and strength to be assured that in the eternal fellowship of the Father and the Son, the power of prayer has its origin and certainty, and that through our union with the Son, our prayer is taken up and can have its influence in the inner life of the Blessed Trinity. God’s decrees are no iron framework against which man’s liberty would vainly seek to struggle. No. God Himself is the Living Love, who in His Son as man has entered into the tenderest relation with all that is human, who through the Holy Spirit takes up all that is human into the Divine life of love, and keeps Himself free to give every human prayer its place in His government of the world.
It is in the daybreak light of such thoughts that the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity no longer is an abstract speculation, but the living manifestation of the way in which it were possible for man to be taken up into the fellowship of God, and his prayer to become a real factor in God’s rule of this earth. And we can, as in the distance, catch glimpses of the light that from the eternal world shines out on words such as these: ‘THROUGH HIM we have
access BY ONE SPIRIT unto THE FATHER.’

"Word" in Psalm 119

Using the Bible Gateway, I did a search for all the occurrences of "word" and "words" in Psalm 119. I used the World English Bible for the search:

Psalm 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
16 I will delight myself in your statutes.
    I will not forget your word.
17 Do good to your servant.
    I will live and I will obey your word.
25 My soul is laid low in the dust.
    Revive me according to your word!
28 My soul is weary with sorrow: strengthen me according to your word.
41 Let your loving kindness also come to me, Yahweh,
    your salvation, according to your word.
42 So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me,
    for I trust in your word.
43 Don’t snatch the word of truth out of my mouth,
    for I put my hope in your ordinances.
49 Remember your word to your servant, because you gave me hope.
50 This is my comfort in my affliction,
    for your word has revived me.
57  Yahweh is my portion. I promised to obey your words.
58  I sought your favor with my whole heart.
    Be merciful to me according to your word.
65  You have treated your servant well, according to your word, Yahweh.
67  Before I was afflicted, I went astray;
    but now I observe your word.
74 Those who fear you will see me and be glad,
    because I have put my hope in your word.
76 Please let your loving kindness be for my comfort,
    according to your word to your servant.
81 My soul faints for your salvation.
    I hope in your word.
82  My eyes fail for your word.
    I say, “When will you comfort me?”
89  Yahweh, your word is settled in heaven forever.
101  I have kept my feet from every evil way,
     that I might observe your word.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet,
    and a light for my path.
107  I am afflicted very much.
     Revive me, Yahweh, according to your word.
114  You are my hiding place and my shield.
     I hope in your word.
116  Uphold me according to your word, that I may live.
     Let me not be ashamed of my hope.
123 My eyes fail looking for your salvation,
    for your righteous word.
130 The entrance of your words gives light.
    It gives understanding to the simple.
133 Establish my footsteps in your word.
    Don’t let any iniquity have dominion over me.
139 My zeal wears me out,
    because my enemies ignore your words.
147 I rise before dawn and cry for help.
    I put my hope in your words.
148 My eyes stay open through the night watches,
    that I might meditate on your word.
158 I look at the faithless with loathing,
    because they don’t observe your word.
160 All of your words are truth.
    Every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.
161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause,
    but my heart stands in awe of your words.
162  I rejoice at your word, as one who finds great plunder.
170 Let my supplication come before you.
    Deliver me according to your word.
172 Let my tongue sing of your word,
    for all your commandments are righteousness. 

John 1 calls Jesus the Word. Some of the verses above may also be doing that, such as verse 81. Most of the others, like verse 172, seem to be referring to the Jewish Law.

Thanks for reading. Let me know if I have missed any occurrences of "word," or "words" in Psalm 119.

Sunspots 873

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

Christianity: Relevant argues that protecting the environment should be basic to Christian theology and behavior. For a more thorough discussion of this topic, see my post, here:

Joel Edmund Anderson on what a true Christian world-view is.

Education: Grammarphobia answers the question "who invented the question mark?"

Environment: The Supreme Court has come closer to shutting down the Dakota Access Pipeline, according to Gizmodo.

Politics: FiveThirtyEight discusses right-wing responses to the attack on Ukraine. Some right-wingers support Russia, some do not.

Grammarphobia discusses the name change from Kiev to Kyiv.

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

*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 115

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about prayer and the Trinity. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24.  

This may help us somewhat to understand how the prayer of man, coming through the Son, can have effect upon God. The decrees of God are not decisions made by Him without reference to the Son, or His petition, or the petition to be sent up through Him. By no means. The Lord Jesus is the first-begotten, the Head and Heir of all things: all things were created through Him and unto Him, and all things consist in Him. In the counsels of the Father, the Son, as Representative of all creation, had always a voice; in the decrees of the eternal purpose there was always room left for the liberty of the Son as Mediator and Intercessor, and so for the petitions of all who draw nigh to the Father in the Son.

And if the thought come that this liberty and power of the Son to act upon the Father is at variance with the immutability of the Divine decrees, let us not forget that there is not with God as with man, a past by which He is irrevocably bound. God does not live in time  with its past and future; the distinctions of time have no reference to Him who inhabits Eternity. And Eternity is an ever-present Now, in which the past is never past, and the future always present. To meet our human weakness, Scripture must speak of past decrees, and a coming future. In reality, the immutability of God’s counsel is ever still in perfect harmony with His liberty to do whatsoever He will. Not so were the prayers of the Son and His people taken up into the eternal decrees that their effect should only be an apparent one; but so, that the Father-heart holds itself open and free to listen to every prayer that rises through the Son, and that God does indeed allow Himself to be decided by prayer to do what He otherwise would not have done.

Sunspots 872

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

The Arts: The Federalist claims, with evidence, that Amazon's production of early times, in Tolkien's vision, will be a disaster, at least in the sense of adhering to Tolkien's ideas.

Food: Senegalese farmers are learning to encourage growth of a plant formerly treated as a weed.

Health: The Scientist says that COVID is transmitted by tiny particles in the air, not by large drops.

NPR says that Neil Cavuto, a Fox News host, thanks vaccination, without which he says that he wouldn't be alive. Cavuto earlier received some death threats for advocating vaccination.

Science: Gizmodo reports on a study of DNA found in ocean depths. Most of it is from previously unknown species. Such organisms play an important part in the Carbon cycle of the earth.

Gizmodo also reports that the Webb telescope is working perfectly, so far.

NPR reports on a pack of killer whales who successfully (for them) killed a blue whale.

Gizmodo reports that we may not be prepared for accidental contamination of earth, or some other planet.

The Scientist reports that mosquitoes can remember the smells of insecticides.

Sports: FiveThirtyEight gives us an in-depth look at NBA refereeing.

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

*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 114

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about persevering prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

One of the secret difficulties with regard to prayer,—one which, though not expressed, does often really hinder prayer,—is derived from the perfection of God, in His absolute independence of all that is outside of Himself. Is He not the Infinite Being, who owes what He is to Himself alone, who determines Himself, and whose wise and holy will has determined all that is to be? How can prayer influence Him, or He be moved by prayer to do what otherwise would not be done? Is not the promise of an answer to prayer simply a condescension to our weakness? Is what is said of the power—the much-availing power—of prayer anything more than an accommodation to our mode of thought, because the Deity never can be dependent on any action from without for its doings? And is not the blessing of prayer simply the influence it exercises upon ourselves?
In seeking an answer to such questions, we find the key in the very being of God, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. If God was only one Person, shut up within Himself, there could be no thought of nearness to Him or influence on Him. But in God there are three Persons. In God we have Father and Son, who have in the Holy Spirit their living bond of unity and fellowship. When eternal Love begat the Son, and the Father gave the Son as the Second Person a place next Himself as His Equal and His Counsellor, there was a way opened for prayer and its influence in the very inmost life of Deity itself. Just as on earth, so in heaven the whole relation between Father and Son is that of giving and taking. And if that taking is to be as voluntary and self-determined as the giving, there must be on the part of the Son an asking and receiving. In the holy fellowship of the Divine Persons, this asking of the Son was one of the great operations of the Thrice Blessed Life of God. Hence we have it in Psalm ii.: ‘This day I have begotten Thee: ask of me and I will give Thee.’ The Father gave the Son the place and the power to act upon Him. The asking of the Son was no mere show or shadow, but one of those life-movements in which the love of the Father and the Son met and completed each other. The Father had determined that He should not be alone in His counsels: there was a Son on whose asking and accepting their fulfilment should depend. And so there was in the very Being and Life of God an asking of which prayer on earth was to be the reflection and the outflow. It was not without including this that Jesus said, “I knew that Thou always hearest me.’ Just as the Sonship of Jesus on earth may not be separated from His Sonship in heaven, even so with His prayer on earth, it is the continuation and the counterpart of His asking in heaven. The prayer of the man Christ Jesus is the link between the eternal asking of the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father and the prayer of men upon earth. Prayer has its rise and its deepest source in the very Being of God. In the bosom of Deity nothing is ever done without prayer—the asking of the Son and the giving of the Father.

Sunspots 871

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

Education: Grammarphobia discusses watching "on the TV," vs. watching "on TV."

Environment:  Gizmodo reports that the number of serious earthquakes in Texas increased markedly recently. Fracking is probably the main cause.

Gizmodo also reports that Florida utility companies are fighting solar panel installation in the state.

Gizmodo also reports that about 25% of wild large cats in Zambia had been injured by traps or guns before death.

Gizmodo reports on "rogue waves," waves twice as tall, or more, as those surrounding them.

Finances: Gizmodo discusses the causes of inflation. It's not simple.

Health: NPR shows us a graphic history of the connections between the variations of the SARS-COVID comples of viruses. There are some surprises.

Politics: Gizmodo reports that a majority of donations to the supposedly Canadian "Freedom Convoy" are from the US. Canada has taken action to require reporting of large donations to such groups.

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

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

Thanks for reading.

Wirh Christ in the school of prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 113

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about persevering prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

‘I know that Thou hearest me always;’
Or Prayer in Harmony with the Being of God.
‘Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest me. And I knew that Thou hearest me always.’—John xi. 41, 42.
‘Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I shall give Thee.’—Ps.
ii. 7, 8.

IN the New Testament we find a distinction made between faith and knowledge. ‘To one is given, through the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another faith, in the same Spirit.’ In a child or a simpleminded Christian there may be much faith with little knowledge. Childlike simplicity accepts the truth without difficulty, and often cares little to give itself or others any reason for itsmfaith but this: God has said. But it is the will of God that we should love and serve Him, not only with all the heart but also with all the mind; that we should grow up into an insight into the Divine wisdom and beauty of all His ways and words and works. It is only thus that the believer will be able fully to approach and rightly to adore the glory of God’s grace;  d only thus that our heart can intelligently apprehend the treasures of wisdom and knowledge there are in redemption, and be prepared to enter fully into the highest note of the song that rises before the throne: ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!’
In our prayer life this truth has its full application. While prayer and faith are so simple that the new-born convert can pray with power, true Christian science finds in the doctrine of prayer some of its deepest problems. In how far is the power of prayer a reality? If so,
how God can grant to prayer such mighty power? How can the action of prayer be harmonized with the will and the decrees of God? How can God’s sovereignty and our will, God’s liberty and ours, be reconciled?—these and other like questions are fit subjects for Christian meditation and inquiry. The more earnestly and reverently we approach such mysteries, the more shall we in adoring wonder fall down to praise Him who hath in prayer given such power to man.

Sunspots 870

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

Computing: NPR reports that, in Belgium, some workers are not required to answer communications related to their job, at all hours of the day and night.

Politics: Relevant discusses the matter of white evangelicals being the only significant religious group that is strongly against allowing immigration, and a path to citizenship.

Pornography (There are no photos of pornography in the article(s) linked here): A Christianity Today article on what's wrong with pornography -- it's not about relationships.

Science: The Scientist reports that plants in the UK are blooming about a month earlier than they did a few decades ago.

Gizmodo reports on chimpanzees applying insects to a wound, probably as a treatment of some sort. 

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

*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 112

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about persevering prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

The need of persevering importunate prayer appears to some to be at variance with the faith which knows that it has received what it asks (Mark xi. 24). One of the mysteries of the Divine life is the harmony between the gradual and the sudden, immediate full possession, and slow imperfect appropriation. And so here persevering prayer appears to be the school in which the soul is strengthened for the boldness of faith. And with the diversity of operations of the Spirit there may be some in whom faith takes more the form of persistent waiting; while to others, triumphant thanksgiving appears the only proper expressions of the assurance of having been heard.

Sunspots 869

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

Christianity:  (sort of) Christianity Today on Jerry Falwell, Jr.'s, hypocrisy, and sin.

A church in Oregon has filed a lawsuit, complaining that feeding the hungry and homeless is a right under freedom of religion. (They have been doing that for years.)

Environment:  Gizmodo reports that QAnon followers have attacked a butterfly sanctuary.

ListVerse shows us videos of 10 areas that are, scenically, on a par with the National Parks.

Health: NPR reports that Malawi, and perhaps some other poor countries in Africa, have mostly beaten COVID, and how this has happened.

Politics: Christianity Today reports that Florida's governor DeSantis is taking action to present charitable groups from helping care for migrant children, which action is legal in the US (including Florida).

Science: The Scientist reports that mutation rates of especially important genes are lower than for genes in general.

Gizmodo reports that peat bogs in the UK, which are a source of archaeological material, are being lost to global climate change.

Gizmodo also reports on all-female termite colonies.

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

*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 111

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 in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. In this excerpt, Murray continues a discussion about persevering prayer. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. 

O Lord my God! teach me now to know Thy way, and in faith to apprehend what Thy Beloved Son has taught: ‘He will avenge them speedily.’ Let Thy tender love, and the delight Thou hast in hearing and blessing Thy children, lead me implicitly to accept Thy promise, that we receive what we believe, that we have the petitions we ask, and that the answer will in due time be seen. Lord! we understand the seasons in nature, and know to wait with patience for the fruit we long for—O fill us with the assurance that not one moment longer than is needed wilt Thou delay, and that faith will hasten the answer.
Blessed Master! Thou hast said that it is a sign of God’s elect that they cry day and night. O teach us to understand this. Thou knowest how speedily we grow faint and weary. It is as if the Divine Majesty is so much beyond the need or the reach of continued supplication, that it does not become us to be too importunate. O Lord! do teach me how real the labour of prayer is. I know how here on earth, when I have failed in an undertaking, I can often succeed by renewed and more continuing effort, by giving more time and thought: show me how, by giving myself more entirely to prayer, to live in prayer, I shall obtain what I ask.
And above all, O my blessed Teacher! Author and perfecter of faith, let by Thy grace my whole life be one of faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me—in whom my prayer gains acceptance, in whom I have the assurance of the answer, in whom the answer will be mine. Lord Jesus! in this faith I will pray always and not faint. Amen.

Sunspots 868

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

Christianity:  (and other religions) Christianity Today points out recent advances in religious freedom in five countries.

Relevant reports that women are more accepted as pastors than they used to be.

Finances: Relevant reports on a study finding that the children of women who are given money have more  vigorous brain development.

Health: The Scientist reports that some mild cases of what seems to be COVID are actually a placebo effect, in reverse.

NPR has information on how to pick a good mask, where to buy them, if you aren't using one from the government, and how (or not) to re-use them.

Science: The Scientist reports on beetle larvae that can jump.

Gizmodo reports on a disease that is usually fatal to rabbits. It's spreading.

Gizmodo also reports on a study indicating that some microorganisms can live well at 250 degrees F.

Sports: NPR reports that the first woman drafted by the NBA (she chose not to sign), who was also the first woman to score points in Olympic basketball, has died.

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

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

Thanks for reading.