What You Need to Know about the Arrest of Pastor James Coates

What You Need to Know about the Arrest of Pastor James Coates

Comment: Similar: Trinity Bible Chapel elders fined $38K for contempt of court ruling, must pay $45K in court fees

Excel Tip: Extract Last Name

=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-FIND("*",SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","*",LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","")))))

Comment: HT Link

401,586: Beginning of President Biden administration

Comments:

• Today tried to sign up for vaccine - shut out! Trib article
• Let's see how Biden's 100M vaccines in 100 days works out

On Photo Scanning

The Best Ways to Digitize Old Photos, Tapes and Discs So Your Memories Live On

Photographs and prints are the easiest to do yourself. The most efficient route? Invest in the $600 Epson FastFoto FF-680W scanner. Put a stack of photos—even Polaroids—in the tray and it scans them in bulk, a photo as fast as every second, sending them to your computer via USB or Wi-Fi. Epson’s software helps with assigning years to each of the photo’s metadata and has simple color-restoration and editing tools. It’ll even scan the backs with the fronts, to preserve any writing or time stamps that are visible. While it’s pricey, the cost is worth it if you’re dealing with hundreds of photos. Plus, the scanner is something you can share with family members or friends who are daunted by their own photo troves.

My first scan:

 How to scan document to PDF

The Civil War James Peet

(his young son)

Gravesite location

Curved Text

Curve text around a circle or other shape

Remove Hyperlinks in Word

The Macro:

Option Explicit Sub KillTheHyperlinks() ' ----------------------------------------------- ' Removes all hyperlinks from the document: ' Text to display is left intact ' ----------------------------------------------- With ThisDocument ' Loop while there are hyperlinks afoot! While .Hyperlinks.Count > 0 .Hyperlinks(1).Delete Wend End With ' Shut this off, don't need anymore popping up Application.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceHyperlinks = False End Sub Sub KillTheHyperlinksInAllOpenDocuments() ' ----------------------------------------------- ' Removes all hyperlinks from any open documents ' Text to display is left intact ' ----------------------------------------------- Dim doc As Document Dim szOpenDocName As String ' Loop through all open documents: For Each doc In Application.Documents ' Store the document name szOpenDocName = doc.Name ' Remove the hyperlinks from that document With Documents(szOpenDocName) ' Loop while there are hyperlinks afoot! While .Hyperlinks.Count > 0 .Hyperlinks(1).Delete Wend End With ' Shut this off, don't need anymore popping up Application.Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceHyperlinks = False Next doc End Sub

The Kings of Assyria, Babylon & Persia

The scientific method defined

What the Pandemic Has Taught Us About Science: The scientific method remains the best way to solve many problems, but bias, overconfidence and politics can sometimes lead scientists astray

Excerpt:

In a lecture at Cornell University in 1964, the physicist Richard Feynman defined the scientific method. First, you guess, he said, to a ripple of laughter. Then you compute the consequences of your guess. Then you compare those consequences with the evidence from observations or experiments. “If [your guess] disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make a difference how beautiful the guess is, how smart you are, who made the guess or what his name is…it’s wrong.”

Abort73.com

https://abort73.com/

3 views of submission to government from Romans 13

3 views of submission to government from Romans 13

1. The Lutheran View: Obey in all things, except sin
2. The Presbyterian/Puritan View: Obey when the Government promotes good or checks evil
3. The Baptist View—All that, plus the freedom of the church

What's the Point of Life?

Thinking Theologically About Race (series)

• With Liberty and Justice for All
• Faith Seeking Understanding: Thinking Theologically About Racial Tensions
• Thinking Theologically About Racial Tensions: The Image of God
• Thinking Theologically About Racial Tensions: Sin and Guilt
• Thinking Theologically About Racial Tensions: Life Together in the Church

On Systemic Racism

‘Systemic Racism’: An Uncontestable Axiom


 Excerpt:

Here’s the thing: how can we know if these claims made in the letter are true? Is there any way to contest them, to falsify them? Practically speaking, I don’t think there is. You’re going to be the manager who tells black people who signed the letter that actually, their claims are in any way inaccurate, unfair, or wrong? Unthinkable. Don’t misunderstand: these grievances might well be justified. My point is that for all intents and purposes, in this cultural environment, it is impossible to challenge them. I was googling today and found an interview on YouTube with a black undergraduate at Princeton, who asserted that the university was racist. The interviewer asked him for examples of Princeton’s racism. He could not come up with a single example! But this did not deter him. He said that Princeton was “structurally racist.” Maybe it is, I dunno. But again, is this a testable hypothesis? If it’s not a testable hypothesis — I mean that as a matter of cultural politics — then what does that mean? It means that if you are part of an “oppressed minority,” you can get whatever you want just by demanding it, because those running our institutions lack the confidence to challenge you.

Comment: Yup

Six Views on New Covenant Fulfillment

Six Views on New Covenant Fulfillment

1. The New Covenant will be fulfilled in the future with national Israel; the church has no relationship to the New Covenant (some classical dispensationalists)
2. There are two New Covenants—one with Israel and another for the church (some traditional dispensationalists including John Walvoord)
3. The New Covenant is completely fulfilled with the church; there is no future fulfillment with national Israel (Covenant Theology and some non-dispensational systems)
4. The New Covenant will be fulfilled with Israel but the spiritual blessings of the covenant are applied to the church today (some traditional and revised dispensationalists)
5. The New Covenant will be fulfilled with Israel but the church is an added referent to the New Covenant promises so there is a sense in which the New Covenant is being fulfilled with the church. The New Covenant has two referents—Israel and the church (some revised dispensationalists; Paul Feinberg)
6. Since the New Covenant was given to Israel for the purpose of also blessing Gentiles there is literal fulfillment of the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant to all believing Jews and Gentiles in this present age, while the physical/national promises await fulfillment with Jesus’ second coming when national Israel is incorporated into the New Covenant (some revised and most progressive dispensationalists)

Comment: I'm #6

One of the biggest mistakes I see is assuming that since the New Covenant was made with Israel, it can only be fulfilled with Israel. The Abrahamic, Davidic, and New covenants were given to Israel for the purpose of also blessing Gentiles.

— Mike Vlach (@mikevlach) December 24, 2019

#4 does not see New Covenant "application" to the church as being a real "fulfillment." #6 sees real "fulfillment" with the church since the New Cov was intended to bless Gentiles and that is what is happening.

So:
#4--no fulfillment
#6--real fulfillment

— Mike Vlach (@mikevlach) December 27, 2019

In 2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says Christians are "servants of a new covenant." This has to be more than just proclaiming that Israel one day will fulfill the New Covenant. We are proclaiming a covenant that impacts people today (and Israel as a whole in the future -Rom 11:26-27)

— Mike Vlach (@mikevlach) December 27, 2019

Paul Henebury on: Part 1, Part 2

The "Great Enrichment"

We live in the luckiest era in history, and here's why - Enrichment rooted in capitalism has made life better in so many ways, including ones that touch very close to home. It's worth considering if you favor systemic change. 

Excerpt:

The facts are that for most of human history the “natural” way of things was for parents to bury children. Nowadays, as my friend suggests, such sorrows are rare tragedies. The numbers tell the story. In 1860, the share of the global population that died in the first five years of life was 41%. In 2017, it was 4%.

In the U.S., in 1900, 1 child in every 4 died before his or her fifth birthday. Today it is 1 out of 167.

This 98% decline is an incredible success story. What changed? Call it the Industrial Revolution. Call it capitalism. The result was what economic historian Deidre McCloskey calls the Great Enrichment.

For most of history, humans survived on roughly the equivalent of $3 a day — enough for subsistence living. In good times living standards might rise, but one bad harvest or natural disaster could plunge a community back into abject poverty.

Around 200 years ago things began to change rapidly. Today the average American lives on about $130 a day. Europe, Canada, Australia and parts of South America and Asia have enjoyed similar increases.

This vast increase in wealth — widely shared — enabled us to afford medicines and medical treatments, diets, clothing and shelter, among other things, which banished such stories as the Pettijohns’ to the realm of freak horror.

This Great Enrichment — rooted in capitalism — continues to benefit humanity. Worldwide, there are 200 million fewer people undernourished than there were as recently as 1990. Since 1993, the share of humans living in extreme poverty has fallen from 34% to 10%, while the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 1.1 billion.

Since 2000, worldwide deaths from malaria have fallen by half. The income of the median person on the globe has doubled since 2003. Life expectancy is now higher than ever before on all the world’s continents.

Hasn’t all this come at a great environmental cost? Perhaps, but it ought to be remembered that this cost liberated us from the horrific world of Thomas and Charity Pettijohn and generations of ancestors. When people say that we need “system change” or that “another world is possible,” we should remember what the world of the Pettijohns was really like.

And, beyond a certain level of wealth, countries become greener. Worldwide, between 1990 and 2014, CO2 emissions per $1 of GDP fell from 0.76 kg to 0.32 kg — a 58% decline. In the U.S., they fell from 0.81 kg to 0.30 kg — 63%. There needn’t be a trade-off between the environment and continued economic growth.

This is not just my first Christmas without my dad, but also my first Christmas as a dad. My son was born in May. When I think of what Thomas and Charity Pettijohn went through, I feel sick. My heart breaks for them, and I cannot imagine how I would cope. I am thankful that the likelihood of my having to try is so vastly diminished.

For all the doom-mongering around us, we are the luckiest generation in history. Considering the falling environmental cost of economic growth, there is no reason the Great Enrichment cannot continue. If we keep sight of what it was that has made us so fortunate, the economic possibilities for our children are bright.

Comment: Follow tag Age of Abundance

Psychoanalyst suggests that atheist parents lie to their kids about God ..

Don’t Believe in God? Lie to Your Children - The alternative is to tell them they’re simply going to die and turn to dust.

Excerpt:

As a therapist, I’m often asked to explain why depression and anxiety are so common among children and adolescents. One of the most important explanations—and perhaps the most neglected—is declining interest in religion. This cultural shift already has proved disastrous for millions of vulnerable young people.

A 2018 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology examined how being raised in a family with religious or spiritual beliefs affects mental health. Harvard researchers had examined religious involvement within a longitudinal data set of approximately 5,000 people, with controls for socio-demographic characteristics and maternal health.

The result? Children or teens who reported attending a religious service at least once per week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and had lower risks of mental illness. Weekly attendance was associated with higher rates of volunteering, a sense of mission, forgiveness, and lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual initiation. Pity then that the U.S. has seen a 20% decrease in attendance at formal religious services in the past 20 years, according to a Gallup report earlier this year. In 2018 the American Family Survey showed that nearly half of adults under 30 do not identify with any religion.

Comment: You've lied about Santa Claus ... might as well!

Christ and Culture

The book to buy

Logical Fallacies

Get the Poster

The "Jack of All Trades" worker

The Increasing Demand for Hybrid, ‘T-Shaped’ Workers

Excerpt:

Across a variety of occupations and industries, many highly specialized workers are being replaced by problem-solving generalists. Higher productivity and lower costs, or doing more with less, are some of the reasons for this change. Other important reasons are the increased complexity of products and systems and the unanticipated problems that often follow.

The USS Gabrielle Giffords offers a good illustration of the important changes taking place in the U.S. Navy—and in the world of work in general. The ship was designed to operate with a crew of 40 people, the Atlantic reports in a recent article, "a far cry from the 350 aboard a World War II destroyer." That means each crew member needs to be a jack of all trades.

...

The concept of hybrid or T-shaped workers was first introduced around 25 years ago as a metaphor to describe the kind of individuals sought by the Navy and many other organizations. The vertical stroke in the letter T represents a depth of skills and expertise in one or more specific fields; the horizontal bar implies broad multidisciplinary and social skills, as well as the ability to collaborate with experts across disciplines to jointly solve complex problems.

T-shaped skills are increasingly valued in the marketplace. Business schools, for example, have been emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and creative problem-solving that we generally associate with the liberal arts. ... Why are seemingly soft, broad skills so valued in today’s business environment? What’s wrong with I-shaped workers with strong individual skills? There are multiple answers to these questions. Hard skills tend to be deep but narrow. Their half-life is getting shorter. The more specific and concrete the skills, the more they are prone to be automated or significantly transformed by advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, making it necessary for workers to be flexible enough to keep adapting to the continuing changes in the workplace.

Moreover, teamwork is increasingly important in our fast-changing, complex world. If the members of a team all have strong individual skills, it’s often hard for them to collaborate, as they may each also have strong individual points of view. Effective collaboration requires a combination of social, communications and other soft skills that I-shaped workers may not quite have but T-shaped workers do.

Comment:

• Kathee and I are "T-Shaped"
• The ministry could be transformed by this approach!