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The Prayers of the Prodigal
m2t on Jul 27, 2015
The Prodigal Son had two prayers. First, there was his going away prayer. "Father, give me." It was a wicked, selfish prayer, the prayer of a young man tired of restraint and tired of religion. He was tired, too, of his relations, his father who reined him in and his brother who ran him down. Indeed, one can feel sorry for any boy who has an older brother like the prodigal's—a smug, self-satisfied hypocrite and snob. It would be enough to make anyone with red blood in his veins run away. That Pharisaical elder brother of his made the world and its ways very attractive to the prodigal son.
So, the prodigal responded to the call of the world. The far country beckoned all smiles and good cheer. It offered freedom from all the restrictions of a godly home. It offered a wide gate and a broad highway where sin was called by other, friendlier names.
He responded, too, to the congratulations of the world. He headed for the far country with plenty of money in his pocket. He had youth and charm, and he paid generously for all his fairweather friends to have their fun. So, for as long as his money lasted, it was wine, women, and song, a fast life, and plenty of laughs. But then his money ran out. At once the world turned a different face toward him.
He began to learn something of the cares of this world. A famine arose, and even capable, local men were thrown out of work. He felt the pinch of poverty. He was hungry. Nobody gave him so much as a denarius. His fast-living friends abandoned him. He was out of work, and out of money, and far from home. He was lonely and hungry and cold.
In that far country, wherever it was that he went, he learned something of the coldness of the world. Gone were its smiles; gone was its song. He stood amid busy, bustling throngs starving! "He joined himself," Jesus said, "to a citizen of that country" (Lk. 15:15), but starvation wages were all he could earn. And what a job it was! He was hired to feed swine! Worse still, he became so hungry that he longed to eat the slop in the pig pail. So much for his going away prayer.
We can picture the prodigal as he bangs on the door of the big house on the hill in that faraway land. "Here Mister, here's your pig pail! I'm going home to my father." Perhaps the man would look the boy up and down with scorn, observing his unwashed body, his unkempt beard and the marks of dissipation on his face. "Well, boy," he might have said, "more the fool you are. If I were your father, I'd set the dogs on you." And the boy would say: "I daresay you would, but you don't know my father." Nor did the prodigal for that matter.
Now we hear his coming home prayer: It was no longer, "Father, give me," but, "Father...make me as one of thy hired servants." His father's servants were well-treated, well-housed, and wellfed... while he perished with hunger. "He came to himself," Jesus said (Luke 15:17). And then he came to the father. "I am no more worthy to be called thy son," he said. When he finally arrived at the father's home, it was not the servant's quarters to which we was sent. He was caught in the father's embrace. The best robe, a ring for his finger, shoes for his feet, and the fatted calf for a celebration banquet were his...and a new life as well!
The whole priceless story told from the lips of the Lord Jesus is a parable of God's dealing with us who have gone astray..."All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way" (Isa. 53:6). Yet, those with contrite hearts that humbly return to the heavenly Father, seeking forgiveness, find it is graciously given and His love is outpoured!
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Topic: How do I enable sound in KISOK edition ?
How do I enable sound in KISOK edition ?
Hi, I noticed the sound does not work on KIOSK edition, how do I enable sound ?
Topic: How do I enable right-click in KISOK edition ?
Hi, I noticed the right-click does not work on KIOSK edition, how do I enable this feature ?
Dual screen is a feature that would be great !!! You have my vote on that !!!
I agree to that !!!
I understand your position and rethinking about it, i think your probably right, its not really needed for the kiosk edition.
Could you post a link to that server please ?
When you say you will add ssh support, will it be on the java addon wizard release you talked about earlier in an other post ?
Can i help in anything with JAVA addon ?


All our models are packed with the same high quality set of features but come in different sizes to fit your individual requirements. Pick what you need, you can't make a wrong choice.
Carpetlight is the first lighting system defining a new category covering all requirements of professional lighting. All Carpetlight products feature an extremely low thickness of less than 10 mm and a surface weight as low as 1.000 grams per square meter. The lightweight design not only comes in handy when it has to be carried – the new arrangement and hanging possibilities will make solving nightmare lighting scenarios your new favourite thing.
You can use any fixture you can think of. Weight is no issue anymore. There is no need for expensive, time-wasting or elaborate construction building to hang the light system, due to its light weight the mounting of the CARPETLIGHT is child's play.
Carpetlight products are handcrafted with the greatest care in Hamburg, Germany and conform to the highest standards of manufacturing. No hazardous materials are used in the process. All our products are certified by the german TÜV NORD ® .
We used them in almost any set. They made our shooting in cars and trains much easier and faster.
Carpetlight is the most used lamp on our set. It's lightweight, quick to build, very powerful and with good colors. We were using in sunny exteriors as a fill light and for night exteriors as a key light.
The flexibility and handling is incredible and makes hard-to-light-sets easy to be lit.
We understand professionals need to have full flexibility when creating individual lighting setups to ensure perfect results in all situations. That's why the colour temperature is continuously variable between 2.800 K and 6000 K. Carpetlight ensures a CRI value of at least 87 Ra for vivid red colour-rendering (R9) and even 95 Ra or more within the white colour spectrum.
Carpetlight LEDs are powered by a constant current control to ensure flicker-free images even at extremely high frame rates of 2.700 fps. Light intensity and colour temperature can be operated manually or remotely via the DMX protocol.


The Johannine epistles : a commentary on the Johannine epistles / by Rudolf Bultmann ; translated by R. Philip O'Hara with Lane C. McGaughy and Robert Funk. Edited by Robert W. Funk.
by Bultmann, Rudolf Karl, 1884-1976.
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Philadelphia : Fortress Press, Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805.3 .B8413] (2).
Homilies on the first Epistle of John = (Tractatus in epistolam Joannis ad Parthos) / [Saint Augustine] ; introductions, translation and notes by Boniface Ramsey ; editors, Daniel E. Doyle and Thomas Martin.
by Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo | Ramsey, Boniface | Doyle, Daniel Edward, 1953- | Martin, Thomas F. (Thomas Frank), 1943-.
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Hyde Park, N.Y. : New City Press, c2008Other title: Tractatus in epistolam Joannis ad Parthos.Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805 .A8313 2008] (1).
The Second and Third Epistles of John : history and background / by Judith Lieu ; edited by John Riches.
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Edinburgh : Clark, 1986Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805.2 .L55] (1).
Der zweite und dritte Johannesbrief / Hans-Josef Klauck.
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Zürich : Neukkirchen-Vluyn : Benziger ; Neukirchener Verlag, 1992Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805.3 .K522 1992] (1).
Affirming the resurrection of the incarnate Christ : a reading of 1 John / Matthew D. Jensen.
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012Online access: Contributor biographical information | Publisher description Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805.35 .J46 2012] (1).
Communities in dispute : current scholarship on the Johannine epistles / edited by R. Alan Culpepper and Paul N. Anderson.
by Culpepper, R. Alan [editor.] | Anderson, Paul N, 1956- [editor.].
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Atlanta : SBL Press, Copyright date: ©2014Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805.25 .C66 2014] (1).
Open letter to Evangelicals; a devotional and homiletic commentary on the First Epistle of John.
by White, R. E. O. (Reginald Ernest Oscar), 1914-.
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Grand Rapids, Eerdmans [1964?]Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805.5 .W45] (1).
Walking in the truth : perseverers and deserters : the First, Second, and Third letters of John / Gerard S. Sloyan.
by Sloyan, Gerard Stephen, 1919-.
Material type: Text; Format: print ; Literary form: Not fiction Publisher: Valley Forge, Pa. : Trinity Press International, 1995Availability: Items available for loan: *Schaff Library [Call number: BS 2805.3 .S6 1995] (1).


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Releases Motörhead
Louder Than Noise…Live in Berlin
Release Date: April 23rd 2021
CD Album with Bonus DVD (Digipak) - World
Double Vinyl Album in Gatefold - World EX. US & CA
Limited Edition Boxset - GSA
Digital Download - World
Streaming - World
Today, April 23rd the Kings of the Road MOTÖRHEAD release Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin. Order/listen in your preferred format HERE
Recorded December 5, 2012, Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin captures Germany's love affair with the Grammy-award winning band as they play in front of 12,000 delirious, delighted and demented MOTÖRHEAD fans at the Berlin Velodrom.. Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin is available on CD with a bonus live DVD, as a double vinyl set and via digital platforms.
Throughout Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin, MOTÖRHEAD's powerful synergy boots its way through the speakers with the boisterous charm and dirty, dangerous, sweaty gusto that was the Lemmy Kilmister/Phil Campbell/Mikkey Dee trademark. From the unapologetically furious "I Know How to Die" to a deliciously raucous "Going to Brazil," Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin is all about the thick, raw and liberating power of MOTÖRHEAD live, with longtime producer Cameron Webb bringing his mixing skills to the party as well as doing a 5.1 mix of the DVD. Further highlights include a favorably feral "Rock It," a rudely raunchy "You Better Run" and a classic one-two haymaker of "Ace of Spades" and "Overkill." The leading track from the album will be a cranium cracking "Over the Top," a song which must be as close to definitive of this band as you'll ever find.
Louder than Noise… Live in Berlin was captured by Herwig Meyszner, who has also produced concert films for the likes of Saxon, Exodus and Kreator, with a multi-camera no-shot-missed shoot that captures not just the energy onstage but the energy on the floor. In so many ways, Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin is a joyous celebration of Lemmy, Phil, Mikkey and this special night in Germany, and whether a collector completist or newbie to MOTÖRHEAD's music, Louder Than Noise… Live in Berlin is a welcome reminder of what real rock 'n' roll is truly about.
1. I Know How to Die - Live in Berlin 2012
2. Damage Case - Live in Berlin 2012
3. Stay Clean - Live in Berlin 2012
4. Metropolis - Live in Berlin 2012
5. Over the Top - Live in Berlin 2012
6. Doctor Rock - Live in Berlin 2012
7. String Theory - Live in Berlin 2012
8. The Chase Is Better Than the Catch - Live in Berlin 2012
9. Rock It - Live in Berlin 2012
10. You Better Run - Live in Berlin 2012
11. The One to Sing the Blues - Live in Berlin 2012
12. Going to Brazil - Live in Berlin 2012
13. Killed by Death - Live in Berlin 2012
14. Ace of Spades - Live in Berlin 2012
15. Overkill - Live in Berlin 2012
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Book Club: The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Posted on January 26, 2018 at 9:00 am | Comments Off on Book Club: The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Tagged: book club, book reviews, Sirens 2018
Each year, Sirens chair Amy Tenbrink posts monthly reviews of new-to-her books from the annual Sirens reading list. You can find all of her Sirens Book Club reviews at the Sirens Goodreads Group. We invite you to read along and discuss!
Several years ago, Sirens featured a guest of honor who wrote one of my all-time favorite books. Despite not being a please-sign-my-book person generally, I sentimentally dragged my copy of this book to Sirens, and in asking the author to sign my copy, mentioned that I really loved their book.
This guest responded, quite drily and certainly correctly, that they had been sitting in the Sirens community room for two days listening to me talk about how much I loved all the books—with a strong implication that we were discussing but one book in an apparently very large pool of beloved literature. This is neither here nor there, but I did eventually convince this guest that there is love and there is love, and got them to sign my bloody book.
But, you know, they weren't wrong. I do love many books. And upon reflection, I have come to realize that I do not love them in many different ways, but rather in three very specific ways.
Sometimes, I love a book because there's something about it: world-building, perhaps, or a certain character, or the writer's craft. The other elements of the book might be nonsensical dreck, but if I love an individual element or two enough, the book and I are good to go. Last year, memorably, I wrote a review of Kendare Blake's Three Dark Crowns in which I wished for more coherent world-building and more competent characters and more stringent editing—and then proclaimed my love purely because in the end all three of those hatefully incompetent girl characters made bold, ambitious, hateful choices. Brava, I said, as I fell in love with a book whose world-building, characters, and writing style I did not like.
Other times, I love a book because it tells a good story. Maybe this is because of its world-building or characters or writing, or maybe this is essentially independent of those elements, but sometimes a book invites you to journey with its characters in a way that feels adventurous or relentless or shockingly human. These books are, I find, often compulsively readable. Perhaps A Crown for Cold Silver, where you're halfway done before you take a breath. Or Bleeding Violet, where I would have followed Hanna and her unreliable narration and her weird hellmouth town anywhere.
But the best books, for me, are the books that—putting plot and characters and story aside—have something to say. They may also, and often do, have great plot and great characters and great story, but they're something more: an exploration of gender, maybe, or a portrait of grief, a commentary on racism or an examination of the importance of friendship as we age. Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, with its all-feminine pronouns, is a terrific example: a great story, a fascinating main character, but also an epiphany for a reader. Or Alif the Unseen, with its incisive intersections of myth, religion, and technology.
The Bloodprint, by Ausma Zehanat Khan, has something to say.
The setting for The Bloodprint, while fictional, will be familiar to anyone who follows the news: a patriarchal group known as the Talisman, led by a mysterious One-Eyed Preacher, is amassing power quickly and over an increasing large area. The Talisman's methods are insidious: control communications by destroying reading materials, brutally execute rebels to sow fear, and enslave any woman not protected by a father or husband. It's not too much of a spoiler to mention that, rather late in the book, we discover that many of the people now living under the Talisman's rule—even for only a single generation—aren't really bothered by their authoritarian rule. They don't remember anything different. How horrifyingly quickly things change.
The book opens with Arian and Sinnia about to attack a caravan taking a number of enslaved women to who-knows-where. This has been Arian's work for years, though despite the number of women she has freed and the number of Talisman men she has killed, she has yet to discover where the Talisman takes the women. She knows only that, until she learns more about what the Talisman is doing, she can't free them all.
Shortly after the book opens, Arian and Sinnia are summoned home. Both women are Companions of Hira, a group of powerful women whose magic and authority is based on the Claim, a work of sacred scripture. But even in this group of women, called to a higher purpose, intrigue abounds and Arian cannot trust things she thought she knew.
The Bloodprint is Arian's story: from her traumatic childhood, to abandoning her great love for her calling, to her commitment to saving her country and her people. The driving force behind the book is her discovery that a piece of the Claim, called the Bloodprint, is real—and if Arian can recover it, that might provide the Companions of Hira the power they need to truly fight the Talisman on a grand scale. As Arian journeys through the long-forgotten legends of her land, she learns the true power of perseverance, not only her own, but that of oppressed people.
Note: The Bloodprint is the first in a series, and has a seriously cliffhanger ending. If you like your series finished, you might want to wait.
I don't usually include pieces of author bios in my book reviews, but this seems especially relevant: Khan holds a PhD in international human rights law with a specialization in military intervention and war crimes in the Balkans. In reading this work focused so much on war crimes, you're in good hands.
Should you read it? Absolutely. While this story is purportedly Arian's, it's really the story of every rebel against an authoritarian regime who has found that their fight is against not only the regime, but their own people's fear, blindness, carelessness, and ignorance. And if that doesn't convince you, perhaps the book's tag will: The only defense against the ignorance of men is the brilliance of powerful women.
Amy Tenbrink spends her days handling strategic and intellectual property transactions as an executive vice president for a major media company. Her nights and weekends over the last twenty-five years have involved managing a wide variety of events, including theatrical productions, marching band shows, sporting events, and interdisciplinary conferences. Most recently, she has organized three Harry Potter conferences (The Witching Hour, in Salem, Massachusetts; Phoenix Rising, in the French Quarter of New Orleans; and Terminus, in downtown Chicago) and eight years of Sirens. Her experience includes all aspects of event planning, from logistics and marketing to legal consulting and budget management, and she holds degrees with honors from both the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music and the Georgetown University Law Center. She likes nothing so much as monster girls, Weasleys, and a well-planned revolution.


Stacey Paradis is the executive director of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance.
If these are the goals, then the focus should be on recognizing the economic benefits of clean energy and, in particular, the thousands of good jobs that are created through energy efficiency.
The Midwest has become a great example of bipartisan cooperation in clean energy policy. In our region, state Republican political majorities dominate the landscape. At the same time, the Midwest has seen a 225 percent increase in electric energy efficiency investment since 2008; $1 billion was invested in electric and natural gas energy efficiency in 2010 and grew to $1.8 billion last year.
In 2016, MEEA commissioned The Cadmus Group to complete a modeled forecast of the economic impacts derived from 2014 utility investments in energy efficiency. The study focused on four areas: 1) MEEA's 13-state Midwest Region; 2) Indiana; 3) Michigan; and 4) Ohio and identified the economic impacts from a single-year of investments during the first year and over the course of a 25-year forecast.
It is increasingly important for policymakers, utilities and stakeholders to understand the positive regional and statewide economic impacts that come from investing in cost-effective energy efficiency. Over the past four years, numerous states in our region debated statewide energy policy that could roll-back or significantly reduce utility-driven energy efficiency. What they recognized were not only the environmental benefits, but also the potential economic impacts of energy efficiency policies. Accordingly, they have taken decisive actions to maintain or improve clean energy standards.
For further evidence of the Midwest's bipartisan support recognizing the value of clean energy and energy efficiency, below are recent statements from a few Midwestern governors to note.
Again, if the goal is to be both pro-jobs and pro-environment, look no further than energy efficiency which is the low cost solution to job creation, energy savings and environmental benefits in our communities.
Energy efficiency is the best way to create resilient cities and communities.
The Midwest is the largest untapped American region in the fight against climate change. While many press announcements focus on California and the coasts, the real action is going to happen in the Midwest.