text:
But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel..
-Micah 5:2, 4, quoted in Matthew 2:6 (NIV)
We know where to find the rich, the powerful, the movers and shakers, the VIPs, don't we? The opinion leaders, the world shapers, they live and work in very specific places.
You find them in Washington, D.C. In London, Paris, Moscow, Berlin, Beijing. You find them moving in the rarefied air of world capitals, in impressive government office buildings and chambers. You find them making policy, writing bills, passing laws, making deals.
You find them in Hollywood, churning out the movies and TV shows we'll be watching talking about next year, determining by the designers they wear and styles they favor what the rest of us will wear. You find them lending their voices to causes and projects, influencing what the rest of us will care about.
Or you find them in corporate office suites and boardrooms, creating the products and services we'll buy. You find them making deals and wooing investors and convincing stockholders.
You find them in the financial centers of the world, making transactions that trickle down to affect the interest rates we pay and receive, the value of our homes, the cost of college, the price of a gallon of gas. You find them at universities around the world, teaching the next generation, doing research that affects our health or our understanding of the world. You find them in advertising offices developing strategies that will influence what we buy. You find them in military headquarters, planning operations that can affect even the borders on our maps.
Two thousand years ago, if you wanted to find the rich and powerful, the movers and shakers, the VIPs, you'd have looked in the same kinds of places. You'd have gone to Rome. Alexandria. Antioch. Ephesus. Athens. A little farther down the list, you'd have found Caesarea, and probably a little farther still Jerusalem. In those places, you'd have found the same sorts of people doing the same sorts of things merit a place on the VIP lists of today.
You know where you wouldn't have gone? Bethlehem. It was a hole in the wall on the way to Jerusalem, known only for who had once lived there, a thousand years earlier. We don't have cities in America that old, but imagine that we were still calling London the City of Harold I. That was Bethlehem — nothing of significance had happened there since David was alive. If you were looking for the rich, the powerful, the movers and shakers, the VIPs, you'd have gone somewhere else. Anywhere else.
So it shouldn't surprise us that no one was looking that night for the birth of a King.
Oh, when the movers and shakers heard something about a king being born, they consulted together and decided that the prophecies indicated Bethlehem as a likely birthplace. City of David, after all. But that was after the fact. No one was looking for a King in Bethlehem that night. And, if they were, they would have looked first in the biggest, nicest house in town. It would have taken them a while, even in a town as small as Bethlehem, to find the young, tired couple bedded down with the animals out behind what was likely an average home overflowing with visitors. It would have taken them a while to find a baby wrapped in whatever rags they could find, asleep in a feed trough.
That's why everybody missed it. We don't know where in Bethlehem Jesus was born, exactly. Oh, people say we know, but that was long after the fact. We don't even know the day; December 25th was just a convenient date, though some Christians were celebrating Jesus' birth on January 6th before that.
In short, we don't know where or when he was born. That's because there wasn't anyone of importance around the mark the date and place. Why would they have been? The important people were elsewhere, doing their important things.
But someone needed to pay attention. Someone needed to mark the event. If the important people had known, they would have had a festival. They would have had a choir in lavish costumes singing praises to the gods and to the newborn king. His subjects would have come to bow before him. His armies would have assembled before him. And so God marked the birth of his Son with a choir of his own, since the VIPs didn't notice. The ranks of heaven's armies assembled. But the only people in the whole world that noticed were a group of shepherds in the fields with their flocks.
They were the first to tell the story of Jesus, the first to share the news that the King had been born.
"The Kings of the Gentiles lord it over them…But I am among you as one who serves," Jesus once said. Our world says it's preferable to be a mover and shaker, but Jesus was content to be among us as one who serves. And so we who follow him should aspire to the same kind of greatness — the greatness of service.
The VIPs of the world have never been very good at worshipping Jesus. Their solutions never include him. So may this Christmas be a time for us to give up once and for all our need to be VIPs. May we leave behind our compulsions to matter, to be important, to be known and admired, and instead go and bow before him. May we give up chasing dollars and things and security and happiness, and may we leave behind the illusion that the right politicians will solve our problems, and may we stop looking to celebrities and corporations to tell us how to live the good life.
Go back to Bethlehem. Go back to the fields and hear with the shepherds the proclamation of "good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Go to that manger, pick your way past the animals, and kneel there before the King.
That's where the important things are happening. That's where they've always happened. If only we could see.
Posted by Patrick Odum at 9:25 AM No comments: Links to this post
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God…
-Luke 2:25-28 (NIV)
Do you remember, like I do, laying awake Christmas Eve? You seemed to lie there forever, too excited to be still, to close your eyes, much less go to sleep. The poem says "not a creature was stirring," but you were certainly stirring, probably not with visions of sugarplums but Barbie or G.I. Joe or a new bike or "a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time" dancing in your head. Whatever you were waiting for, sleeping was out of the question. All you could do was lay there and wait. (For, like, 45 minutes, and then you were asleep. But it seemed like the whole night.)
That's what anticipation does to you, doesn't it? It's a wormhole that slows down time.
I bought movie tickets weeks ago. I don't ever do that; with the same movie showing on 75 different screens, why bother? But the movie I bought tickets for isn't just any movie — it's Star Wars, Episode VII. I hoped it would happen, even though there didn't seem much reason to think so. And then when George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney, I started to think it might happen. And then they announced it, and then the trailers started appearing. And now it's almost here. The week's going to crawl by.
One of the things that happens as you grow up is that you lose your sense of anticipation. Take Christmas, again, as an example. Now, if we lay awake before Christmas is because we're making a list of all the things we still have to do. Wonder is replaced with dread. Joy gives way to fatigue. There are gifts to buy at malls full of people who are as stressed as we are. Decorations to put up, food to prepare, travel plans to make. At some point the problem with Christmas isn't that it takes forever to get here. It's that it doesn't take long enough.
Simeon is one of the background characters of the Bible. He's a part of the scenery. But when we meet him in the Gospel of Luke, we're reminded that even the background characters in our lives have stories. Simeon's story, says Luke, is that he's been waiting. Maybe better, anticipating. He's looking forward in hope for what Luke calls "the consolation of Israel."
That's an Old Testament thing. It's a promise for those who pursue righteousness and seek God that the day is coming when he will wipe away the tears of his people, take them in his arms, and comfort them. The memories of their hardships will fade and be replaced by joy, gladness, and thanksgiving.
Sometimes we lose sight of that hope. We think that if we don't console ourselves, no one else will. And so we lose our sense of anticipation over what God will do while we rush around trying to make life work on our own terms. In the process, we can easily run roughshod over others and add to the pain and sorrow in the world around us.
Simeon didn't forget. He had probably lived a long life, long enough to see a lot of ugliness and experience a lot of grief. But he hadn't lost his anticipation for God's promised consolation. He had laid awake at night thinking about it. He had bought into it long ago. And so when the Holy Spirit nudged him that day to go the temple, he went. Maybe he wandered around for a while, not knowing what he was supposed to be looking for. But then he saw this young couple with a baby, and he knew.
"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
which you have prepared in the sight of all people"
In some impossible way, this child would be God's salvation. He would bring comfort and consolation to God's people. Simeon didn't have to be alive for it — he had seen it. He knew that God's plans sometimes take more than one lifetime to come to completion. But he had seen it all the same, staring into that baby boy's eyes and feeling his fist around his finger.
Maybe it's no surprise that Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Comforter, the Consoler. Jesus has sent him to us to stoke the fires of anticipation, to remind us that Simeon wasn't wrong. Jesus is still the consolation of God's people. He's the one through whom millennia of anticipation are fulfilled. We've seen his salvation in Jesus, and we'll see it in fullness when he comes again. And until then he lives with us and in us to remind us not to lose our hope.
So please don't. Don't sleepwalk through life, blind and deaf and dead to the signs of hope that Jesus will awake in you. Don't make the mistake of thinking that consolation is something we can do for ourselves. Don't lose your sense of joy and wonder in God's salvation. And if you find yourself forgetting this Christmas, then go back to the beginning of the story, before the gifts and parties and what we've made of Christmas. Go back to a baby boy, and see in his face the consolation of God's people. The end of death and grief and pain and hatred and violence. Your consolation.
It's coming, because it's already come.
Posted by Patrick Odum at 12:29 PM No comments: Links to this post
Ashamed of Prayer?
…[T]he prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective..
-James 5:15-16 (NIV)
In the aftermath of the murders this of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, social media have been alive with the usual debates over how to stop mass shootings going forward. Predictably, a lot of the back and forth has been centered on the issue of gun control. Well and good, except why does that debate only seem to take center stage when families are grieving such tragic losses? It seems like the victims get lost, don't they, obscured by the ramblings of politicians from both sides of the aisle currying favor with their voters and constituents?
One might, I suppose, make the same accusations about ministers writing on blogs.
This week, though, has seen the inclusion of a new issue du jour: prayer-shaming.
That's what Atlantic contributor Emma Green called the trend, anyway. She was pointing to the reactions by some to the usual outpouring (again, largely by politicians) of "thoughts and prayers" messages. "Think and pray about passing sensible gun reforms," says one. "Stop thinking. Stop praying. Start acting on gun violence prevention measures," says another. One writer re-tweeted the "thoughts and prayers" messages of several prominent politicians, along with the amount of money they have taken from the NRA. The implication of responses like that is that prayer can be a hedge against the need to actually do anything. (And that "anything" is stricter gun control legislation.)
The New York Daily News captured the feeling with their headline: GOD ISN'T FIXING THIS.
Though it might shock some who have no idea what Christians believe beyond what media tell them that we believe, Christians differ over gun control. For the purposes of my credibility in writing this, let me say that I don't think there is any reason for the average person to own many of the weapons and high-capacity magazines that the San Bernardino shooters apparently had in their possession. I think that's more common sense than liberalism, by the way. So what I'm about to say has nothing to do with whether or not I think tighter restrictions on gun ownership is a good idea — I think it is.
It has everything to do with the fact that I think prayer is a good idea.
Those of us who are believers can and should pray for the families of the victims, that God will comfort them, and that they will find healing and hope in the promises of the gospel.
We can pray for justice. We can pray that people who believe that their hurt and anger is justification for murderous intent will be found and stopped before their intentions can be realized.
We can pray for forgiveness, asking ourselves if we may have had any part in creating a society where mass murder is so easy. We can pray for forgiveness when we stereotype entire cultures and races based on the actions of a few.
Maybe most challenging: we can pray for our enemies, as Jesus commands us and models for us. We can pray for the repentance of those who persecute us, their conversion, their salvation. We can pray for the healing of their broken minds and hearts that have led them to such a terrible place. We can even pray for their forgiveness, secure in the knowledge that God's justice will be done, and that vengeance and retribution belong to him.
The foundation of our faith, after all, is that God acts, that he is at work in the world, and that sometimes he acts in response to the prayers of people of faith. He doesn't always. There's no rule that says he must. We don't control him or manipulate him with our prayers, and sometimes for his own reasons he doesn't answer the prayers of the community of faith as we'd like him to. But we don't stop praying, because to stop praying is to give in to the conceit that the only way to change anything is through legislation or power or aggression or wealth. People of faith believe that it's foolish to trust in human resources to the exclusion of God. That's why we pray.
Not to avoid actually doing anything.
That's because when people of faith pray, it changes our outlook on the world. There will always, of course, be those in our world who wear faith like a costume. Jesus called them out for what they were doing: play-acting. They haven't disappeared from our world, and it's probably true that some of them have successful political careers going. But when believers pray, it sharpens our concern for the world around us. It doesn't dull it. Think of Mother Teresa in Calcutta: she prayed for the poor, but she didn't stop there. Her prayer led to her being among them. When the community of faith prays about the grief and violence in our world, it raises our eyes toward the horizon and leads us out into our world to be the hands through which the Lord does his work.
So, begging the pardon of those who doubt its efficacy, or who have political points of their own to score, when tragedies like the one in San Bernardino occur, I'll pray. I'll pray for comfort for the victims, and that the perpetrators will be stopped, and that further incidents will be prevented. The Holy Spirit helping me, I'll even pray for the repentance and forgiveness of those who do such things. I'll pray because God can do so much more than I can, and because he knows what do to when I don't.
I'll pray for wisdom and guidance to see what has to be done, and strength to do it.
I'm not going to be ashamed of that.
Posted by Patrick Odum at 2:01 PM No comments: Links to this post
Called, Even When It's One Hour Outbound To The Junction
Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.
-1 Corinthians 7:17 (NIV)
I always suspected this. Now I know my suspicions are correct. The traffic where I live is worse than anywhere else in America.
According to a study released last week, the worst traffic bottleneck in the nation is on the Kennedy Expressway (Interstate 90/94) from Nagle Avenue to the Jane Byrne Interchange.
That's, like, a mile from where I live.
So, if you're wondering why I haven't solved the problems of the world by now, or invented something revolutionary, you have your answer. I've been sitting in traffic.
Greg Cohen, the CEO of the group that did the study, visited Chicago recently. He tried going from O'Hare Airport to downtown Chicago via the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train, but said that it "took forever," so he decided to go back to the airport when it was time by taxi. "That was a nightmare too," he says. "I don't know how Chicagoans deal with it."
How do we deal with it, Greg? I'm glad you asked. How do we deal with any of the inconveniences and struggles that life brings us? How do we deal with canceled flights? Impending deadlines? Misunderstood intentions? How do we deal with the fact that, nearly every day, some of the details of life don't go exactly as we'd like them to?
There's the problem, those last five words: as we'd like them to. No one wants, for instance, to sit in traffic. We all feel like our time is too important to waste that way, that we're too in demand, too necessary to the people around us, too indispensable to the events of our lives. We have to much on our to-do-lists and schedules, and more to the point we have too many ideas about the way our lives should go to tolerate realities like backed-up traffic. And so we build little worlds for ourselves in our own heads, worlds in which such indignities and inconveniences are not supposed to exist. And so we publish traffic studies that purport to equate sitting in bottlenecks with lost money — money being the best way in our world to assign value to anything.
As it turns out, I'm just far too valuable to the world to be reduced to sitting in traffic. I mean, I've been saying…
So when things don't go for us as we'd like them to, does that mean nothing of consequence is happening? I'm thinking of sitting in traffic or waiting in line at the DMV or waiting to check out at the supermarket, but also I'm thinking of waiting for a better job, or any job, to come along. I'm thinking of the sometimes long journey between diagnosis and cure. I'm thinking of times when we're struggling through family conflict, or when we're waiting and hoping for the right person to come along at all. I'm thinking of lean economic times, and I'm thinking of cities stewing in racial tension, and I'm thinking of terrorism, and I'm asking: can it be that something good or productive or even holy might be possibly be happening in our lives while we wait for our preferred outcome? And is it possible that we might miss it if we don't keep our hearts and minds open to that possibility?
One of the issues that Christians throughout the ages have wished the Bible spoke more directly to is the issue of slavery. Most of us feel a sense of repugnance at the notion that a human being could ever be treated as the property of another human being. History says that there's an ethic taught in the Gospel and in the Bible that dismantles the institution of slavery. And yet, when the Bible speaks directly to the idea of slavery, it doesn't dismantle it. It says that Christian slave owners should treat their slaves well, as family in Christ, and it says that Christian slaves should work hard, as though they're working for the Lord and not their human masters. You'd like the Bible to read more like The Emancipation Proclamation, and instead you get Uncle Tom's Cabin. There's transformation, to be sure, but not revolution.
The root of that, though, is the belief that God is still God and that his work is going on in our lives, even when our lives don't match our ideals. Put another way, we don't have to wait until everything works out in our lives as we'd like them to for God to act for us and in us and through us. That's how traffic jams are like slavery is like a dead-end job: in all of them, God is at work and we're called to be a part of his work.
"If you're a slave and freedom is a possibility, then by all means, get free," says Paul. But his bigger point is that God has chosen us, whatever our circumstances are, and that it's a waste of time to miss what he's doing right now where we are while we wait for things to get better or brighter. The lives we have right now are the lives we've been given, and God will transform and use these lives, the ones we have right now, for his glory in the world.
So you can fret and worry and stew and smolder and complain about traffic. Or you can be in prayer (eyes open, please), or you can be on the phone (hands-free, please) with someone the Lord might bless through you right there. You can dwell on how much you hate your job, and how much you'll do for the Lord when you finally get the decent job you deserve, but if you do you'll miss what God wants to be doing through you and in you right now, in that dead-end job you have. You can spend your whole life dwelling on how you could have mattered if only this or that — and you will have completely missed how, in the Lord, you could have mattered exactly where you were, doing exactly what you were doing.
Live as a believer where you are, doing what you do, and God will do wonderful things. To waste your life wishing for something else is to doubt him. To trust him is to believe that he has invited you right where you are to be a part of his work in the world, and to learn to expect him to work in unusual ways and unexpected places.
Maybe even in a car stuck on the Kennedy at 5:30 in the afternoon.
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…
-James 1:19 (NIV)
At a Des Moines high school recently, President Obama was asked by a student about a Presidential candidate's proposal to defund universities that display political bias. Obama responded that the idea "runs contrary to everything we believe about education." Then he said:
I've heard some college campuses where they don't want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative, or they don't want to read a book if it has language that is offensive to African-Americans or somehow sends a demeaning signal towards women. I gotta tell you, I don't agree with that either. I don't agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view. Anybody who comes to speak to you and you disagree with, you should have an argument with them. But you shouldn't silence them by saying, 'You can't come because I'm too sensitive to hear what you have to say.' That's not the way we learn either.
I have a son who'll be starting college next year, and so I've been thinking a lot lately about the people he'll meet and what he'll hear from them. My wife and I have not tried to shelter him from points of view other than our own. We want him to know what we believe, and why we believe it, but by and large I think we've resisted the urge to shield him from other, even competing, beliefs. When I've been tempted to, I've tried to talk myself out of it by reminding myself that the world doesn't work that way. I agree with President Obama, I think: differing points of view are not obstacles to learning and growth, but prerequisites for it. We learn best, not by hearing points of view that we already share rehashed and recapitulated, but by allowing our own belief systems to collide with others.
When that happens, as President Obama says, we can have an argument. We can discuss and debate. We can try to convince each other. Best of all, we can start to understand where those other points of view come from, and, even if we never find ourselves sharing them, at least come to know why others do. That always makes us better, more well-rounded people.
Christians haven't always been known for this. Fairly or not (and it isn't always), we've kind of been known for holding a black and white view of the world that tolerates no dissent. There have been times, admittedly, when we've tried to stifle other points of view. While it's admirable for believers to hold firmly to their faith and to obey God as radically as they can, we've crossed the line wherever and whenever we've tried to force others to do the same by censoring other points of view and belief systems.
I don't see that as a uniquely Christian problem, though. In fact, I think the church may be better positioned than most to see the problem and contribute to its solution.
Our society claims to value tolerance, and on the surface we do. But, like most cultural values, this notion of tolerating diversity only runs so deep. We don't really want tolerance of our views. We want agreement and approval. And if we can't have agreement and approval, then we don't want to discuss it anymore. In the face of non-agreement, we expect silence and resort to censorship.
Tolerance requires that we hear from those who disagree with us, and allow them the same room to express their views that we expect for our own.
We don't do debate well anymore.
The Scriptures, interestingly, are full of the mandate to love each other. To bear with each other. James says we should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. The fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives includes such traits as peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. And we still follow, don't we, a Lord who responded to the misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and mistreatment of others, not with censorship or demands to be heard or violence or legal action, but by giving himself in love?
Which, as always, is the only real way to overcome evil.
Wherever Christians go, we should bring with us the ability and willingness to hear from people who don't see the world the way we do. Why should we expect the world views of people of other faiths, or no faith, to align with ours? God give us the grace to hear from folks whose experiences are different than ours, and to hear with the love and grace that Jesus has brought to life in us.
In the church, too — maybe especially in the church — may we listen carefully and lovingly when someone's opinions about this or that or the other thing differ from our own. Unity in the church is created by the Holy Spirit, not by agreement on particular issues. May we resist our culture's impulse to stifle dissent and gloss over disagreement by some mindless appeal to "tolerance."
Have arguments with the people around you sometimes. Love others enough to ask questions when someone has a different point of view. Don't disengage from disagreement on the one extreme, and don't stifle it on the other. Wade in, stand up for what you believe, and really try to hear and understand what the other person is saying. And that is another person on the other end of that issue. A child of God.
We don't stand, as believers, for the mistreatment of others, whether those doing the mistreating share our point of view or not. We don't allow evil actions to go unchallenged. But we're not so fragile that we can't hear other points of view, not so flabby in our faith, surely, that we find it challenged by a different belief system. We follow One who proclaimed that the Kingdom of God overcame the world, and then he showed how by giving himself. Surely we can do the same by listening, understanding, and then proclaiming him in a way that shows his love and grace.
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
…[W]hen God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.
-Galatians 1:11-12, 15-16 (NIV)
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side."
OK, I'm a a little embarrassed that I knew that line by heart. Then again, maybe you do too, or at least recognize it. The line is from a little movie from several decades ago, delivered with a sardonic smirk by a self-proclaimed "scoundrel" played by Harrison Ford, a rogue named Han Solo who discovers his heroism by the end of the film.
Apparently, that's not all he discovered.
That line flashed through my mind a couple of weeks ago when I saw the newest trailer for the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, the first time we'll see Han Solo on the big screen in over 30 years. A lot's happened in his life in that time, apparently. He was a skeptic in the first film, telling a naive farm boy named Luke Skywalker that belief in a "mystical energy field" that controls human destiny is foolish, ridiculous, and even dangerous.
Somewhere, though, Han Solo changed his mind.
In the trailer for the new film, a new character, Daisy Ridley's Rey, asks Solo about the events of the first films, events that apparently passed into legend before she was born. "There are stories about what happened," she says, half in hope, half doubting that anything so amazing and wonderful and frightening could possibly be true. And, once the skeptic, Solo smiles and confesses his faith: "It's true. All of it. The Dark Side, the Jedi. They're real."
I know. They're not real, of course. And maybe none of that has the resonance with you that it does with me. But you know about conversion, don't you? You know something about what it's like to change your mind and see the world in an entirely different light, the light of something that you couldn't imagine was possible before but that changes everything.
Saul had a moment like that. The new light in which he saw the world came from a risen Jesus, a man who he thought was dead. That new light was so bright it took away his own vision for a little while - just long enough for him to realize that his own limited vision was just holding him back. That's what conversion is, isn't it: seeing the world with new eyes?
And Saul does. He sees himself anew, someone who needs the grace of God instead of deciding who's worthy of it. He sees that he needs to "call on the name of Lord," and it's through that risen Lord, Jesus, that what's wrong in him and in the world around him will be put right. He sees that the power to transform his world isn't in his hands, and in fact it's been going on around him all the time, through these Christians energized by God's Spirit.
Conversion is hard, because it demands that we give up any view of the universe that doesn't have God at its center. Sometimes we think that conversion is about information transfer, but the only information Saul learned on that road was that Jesus, who he knew was killed, was alive again. The rest came later — and Saul, who took the name Paul after his conversion — developed at least the basis of most of the best-known doctrines of Christianity. But his conversion came first, and only then did he sit down to think through the implications of a new world view in which the risen Lord Jesus is alive and active in the world, and is bringing it toward an obvious resolution.
Conversion is hard. It's no easier for us. We usually think of conversion as a once-for-all event, in which we "see the light" and everything changes for us. That seeing the light happens often enough, of course, but even then it's not usually once-for-all. Conversion is more often a recurring theme in our lives, as in many different ways we're forced to come to the conclusion that we aren't at the center of our worlds at all. It's a moment of conversion to realize that your church attendance doesn't make you a believer, and that you need to change your way of seeing the world every bit as much as the addict who mistakes meth for God. It's a moment of conversion to realize that your belittling of your spouse has to do with your need for control, and that if you don't give up control to God you're going to destroy your marriage. It's a moment of conversion to let go of your ideas of the perfect family, or the perfect career arc, or the perfect retirement, and instead bow in submission to the perfect will of God.
For a long time now, the church has been best at information transfer. It's a reflection of the values of the world around us that knowledge and information are power. We conquer the forces of nature, or the open market, or the atom, or whatever, through knowledge. And the church has often adapted this strategy. "Tell people how to be good Christians, and they will be," we've said.
But we've neglected conversion.
Here's something all the knowledge in the world won't help you with: the world doesn't bend to your will, and it never, ever will. Evil, disease, and death claim the most powerful, the most intelligent, the most visionary among us. Forces more powerful than we are push time and history along. Hope for our own redemption, and the redemption of the world around us, is out of our hands.
And so we need to be converted, every one of us. We need to come to the point in our lives when we're blinded by the light of a risen Lord and make room for him at the center of our lives. By his grace, God wants to reveal him in us. It's revelation — God's doing, not our own. It calls us to action, no doubt; but first, it calls us to get ourselves out of the way and let God have his way. It's true. All of it. The gospel of Jesus, that he has been raised from the dead by the power of God and is putting right what has gone wrong — it's true.
May we live in such a way that its truth can be made known in us.
You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
"What is truth?" retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him.
-John 18:37-38 (NIV)
Quite a question from someone sitting on a judgment saying, trying to ascertain the guilt or innocence of a man accused of capital crimes. "What is truth?" What is that, to suggest that truth is this elusive, slippery thing, that knowing it is something like trying to hold on to a wet bar of soap in the shower? Truth is clear, obvious, undebatable. Isn't it?
Well, except when it's not. What's the truth about the guy begging for change at the intersection near my house? What's the truth about the women putting themselves on display at the theater down the avenue? What's the truth about the kids in my city who see zero chance, zero, of a life other than the one they've inherited from their parents and grandparents?
What's the truth about the guy who's attracted to other men, didn't ask for it, doesn't want it, but there it is anyway? What's the truth about the colleague who's hurt you, spoken evil of you, and without cause?
While we're asking, what's the truth about your own character? Saint, or sinner?
Sometimes truth is easy, of the 2+2=4 variety. There are a lot of those truths, so self-evident that we just take them for granted. We should appreciate those more. Hold them up and look at them, investigate them, enjoy them, enjoy the certainty.
Because sometimes truth is decidedly not easy.
I don't really mean that it's the malleable thing, squishy like wet clay, that the postmodern fascination with your truth and my truth suggests. Truth doesn't need pronouns. What I mean is that I don't have a lot of confidence that I have a handle on truth, even most of the time. And, you'll forgive me, I don't have much more confidence that you do, either. That lack of confidence comes from experience, both with my own misappropriation of truth and with what happens when society at large thinks that they've got truth firmly in hand. It usually isn't pretty, and not pretty in direct proportion to the certainty with which we silly, ridiculous, fallible human beings wield what we call truth.
The Third Reich was sure, you know? So were the terrorists who brought down the World Trade Center. So were the Crusaders who marched on Jerusalem and the police who turned fire hoses on the marchers in Selma, Alabama, so were they all sure, all certain that they were acting out of truth. And all wrong.
Very often the most misguided are those who shout the loudest and longest. There's something about that certainty that can be seductive, draw people in. It provides a framework for seeing the world that provides structure, support, something to grab hold of. Certainty and conviction can serve as convincing dopplegangers for truth.
The church often gravitates to those who speak in the starkest, most black and white terms. We confuse intolerance for moral outrage, certainty for doctrinal correctness. We like it in politics, too. We like it because it cuts easily through complicated issues and demonizes those who don't share our point of view.
But if we're serious about truth, then we have to understand that volume and certainty aren't its equivalent.
"Anyone on the side of truth comes to his conclusions, sticks to them, and shouts down those who would dare to disagree." No, that's not what Jesus said about truth. Fact is, Jesus seems to have believed two things about truth, no, three, with equal certainty:
You and I have little chance of grasping it clearly.
He is all about truth. Came to testify to it. Embodies it.
And so the third thing: If you care about truth, you'll talk less and listen to him more.
"The truth will set you free," we sometimes say, and run around trying to set as many people free as we can by shouting at them the most obscene perversions of truth. As though truth depends on us to pronounce it. We prize being right over compassion, grace, mercy, and love. Jesus did say that the truth liberates. But he also said that we know the truth by holding to his teaching.
In short, we're not fit to be prattling on about truth until we're walking in Jesus' footsteps and loving people as he did.
Truth is relational, not informational. It comes to us from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's mediated to us in the context of living with Jesus, walking with him, and treating others as he teaches us. And it's discovered best in community with other people.
Truth is independent of us. It isn't to be domesticated for our own use. It doesn't exist to make us feel secure or certain, and its purpose isn't to win arguments for us. Truth comes from God, and it's bigger than we can imagine. And, by the way, if what you call truth doesn't lead you to love and compassion and grace, as it did our Lord, then it isn't truth at all.
One other thing Jesus teaches us about truth: sometimes it gets you crucified. It isn't to be thought of as a tool that you use to win approval, and it may not get you your own way. Just as likely it gets you chewed up and spit out by the people who should know it when they hear it and love it best.
And when that happens, then truth demands that you pray for the forgiveness of the people who have sinned against you.
This thing truth, it isn't easy. Pilate was right. If we're on our own in the business of discerning and grasping truth, we might as well throw up our hands and say, "Why bother?" But we're not, of course. And when Pilate's question bubbles up from the depths of our own hearts, we can look to the One who has given himself to show us truth.
May we be found faithful.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
-Isaiah 53:2-3 (NIV)
One day soon, Kris Bryant will be recognized most everywhere he goes, particularly in Chicago. He's not quite there yet, though.
Last month, the rookie third baseman for the Chicago Cubs, who is likely to win the National League Rookie of the Year award, participated in the Undercover Lyft series as a celebrity driver for the ride sharing service. You'd think that Chicagoans would recognize him, but you'd be wrong. Not one person knew who he was. (One rider thinks maybe he's ridden with him before, but that's as close as anyone gets.)
Bryant takes several of his passengers past Wrigley Field, pointing out that they don't have photos on the stadium of his "favorite player." One passenger reminds him that Bryant is "new-ish," and tells him to give it time.
One guy, when Bryant asked him what he thinks of baseball players as athletes, says he thinks they're more like chess players. "Yeah, chess players," muses Bryant. "They just kind of stand there."
Another passenger talks about his skill as a volleyball player. "I play baseball," Bryant says. "I'm pretty good."
"Why aren't you in the pros, then?" the guy comes back. "Not to make you feel bad about it."
Seems to me that Bryant showed a lot of restraint. He does eventually reveal himself to his passengers, but I'd have probably done it a lot sooner. Maybe taken some pleasure in making them feel a little silly. Making them eat their words. I might have challenged the guy who equated baseball players with chess players to a push-up contest. I would have wanted to show the volleyball player what a professional athlete is. I would have been looking for a chance to sign some autographs, or to hear someone tell me how much they enjoyed watching me play. I would have wanted to be recognized.
I think that's a human impulse, to be recognized. To be known. Not to be mobbed in public, maybe, or to be famous in the usual sense of that word, but to be known for something. What we want, I think — and maybe what the drive for at least 15 minutes of fame that many in our world seem to have comes from — is to be appreciated for something we've accomplished, some talent we bring to the table, something that we offer to the world. In fact, it seems as if we almost evaluate our accomplishments based on how many people know about them, the ripples they make in the world around us.
I don't think there's anything innately wrong with that. The trouble arises when we start to judge ourselves and others by the appreciation and recognition we receive. That's why pro athletes seem to be about the money and the SportsCenter highlights, and why young athletes want to go to the schools that will give them the most exposure. It's why professors want tenure, why lawyers like high-profile cases, why ministers seem to find that they're "called" to progressively larger churches. It's why we like awards, honors, notices, promotions. Why we all want the people we love to notice what we do for them. We want to be appreciated.
Jesus identified with Isaiah's "Suffering Servant." Though he went through his time of popularity, in the end the world around him moved on. By the end, he didn't look good enough, wasn't packaged impressively enough, didn't command enough influence. He was "like one from whom people hide their faces": despised, rejected, and all too familiar with suffering and pain. There was nothing in him that would attract us to him.
Certainly not by the end, when they hung him up on a cross. As far as the world was concerned, he was best forgotten there with the other nameless criminals who died with him.
Paul's take on it, though, is that the cross was far from Jesus' great failure. It was the place of his greatest success, where he emptied himself of the need to be known, appreciated, and vindicated and obeyed God instead. He didn't use equality with God to his own advantage, and instead "poured himself out" and "took the nature of a servant." Though in union with God, "he humbled himself."
The danger with our need for appreciation, you see, is that it so often leads us to give up on obeying God to serve our own agendas. Or, maybe even worse, to convince ourselves that our agendas and God's will are the same thing. They're not, almost never. Invariably, taking seriously what God wants of us will at some point force us to give up our own agendas and satisfy ourselves with his.
Professionally, success by God's definition isn't measured by how much money you make, how well-known you are, and how many people report to you. It isn't measured by the number of times you're mentioned in industry journals, or the size of the office with your name on the door. Ministers, God may want you in that small church you're serving. Teachers, he may need you in that struggling, poor, inner-city school. He may want you to give up (for now) a fast-track career path to stay home with your kids, or stay in that church you're blessing, or be with those friends who need your presence.
You may not be appreciated for your faith, your kindness, your gentleness, your righteousness. Millions have walked that path before you. Choosing God's path may very well lead you away from the adulation of the masses. It may lead you into suffering and even death. When it does, just remember that we have an example, Someone who has gone before us and made the same choice. Remember that God lifted him up. And trust that he will do the same for you, in his time.
So the world may not know your name. That's OK; there are plenty of names the world has never known that God knows. His approval is what matters, and one day he'll say your name, loudly and with a smile. And, who knows, maybe angels will applaud. And the One you've followed, the Suffering Servant in whose footsteps you've walked, will acknowledge you: "Well done, good and faithful servant."
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End of Western Union Remittance Service to Cuba a Boon for Crypto
At the time of the initial U.S. government announcement, the global remittances giant had promised to find a solution for its Cuban custome...
Home / Unlabelled / PayPal Restricts the account showcasing frequent transactions of Cryptocurrency
PayPal Restricts the account showcasing frequent transactions of Cryptocurrency
A PayPal user reports their account has been restricted after they traded crypto too frequently using the platform.
According to U.S.-based Reddit user TheCoolDoc, PayPal sent them a message stating that it had permanently limited their account "due to potential risk." The user said they had made at least 10 crypto transactions within a week, purchasing during dips and selling when the price was high, and PayPal had asked for an explanation for each transaction.
"The system flagged my account thinking I was selling items worth $10,000 in one week when I hadn't done so in the last 6 years I've held a PayPal account," the user said. "I submitted the stuff for review with my photo ID and wrote 'PayPal Crypto' for each crypto transaction because what else could I say?"
In a matter of hours, PayPal reportedly sent a message stating that the user would "not be able to conduct any further business" using the platform. The user stated that the remaining funds in the account — $462 — were placed on a 180-day hold, but they have since used other means to withdraw them.
The platform imposed a $10,000 limit — recently changed to $20,000 — for crypto purchases made within a week for U.S. customers, a limit the Reddit user denies exceeding.
"I genuinely 100% know I did nothing wrong and it's a misunderstanding because they think I made 50+ buy/sell transactions in a span of 1 week of items when it's just crypto," said TheCoolDoc.
PayPal announced on Nov. 12 that it would begin allowing eligible users in the United States to use cryptocurrencies for trading and payments. Reddit user Cryptix001 also reported problems with the platform handling crypto transactions:
The platform's policy states that it charges no transaction fees for users buying or selling crypto until 2021, and there are no fees for holding crypto. Reddit user bittabet suggested a partial explanation for PayPal's actions could be that it loses money with users conducting high-volume trades.
"PayPal isn't a crypto exchange, their service is meant for people to hold Bitcoin with and then spend it at their merchants when they turn on that ability," the Reddit user stated. "If you go and trade constantly they lose a ton of money covering those fees since they're not charging any fees right now. Their service is supposed to be more like a Bitcoin bank account, not a trading account."
Even if the platform removed the restrictions from their account, TheCoolDoc said they would "never buy a Satoshi of crypto" from PayPal again.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/paypal-suspends-user-for-crypto-trading-using-paypal-s-own-service
PayPal Restricts the account showcasing frequent transactions of Cryptocurrency Reviewed by Press Release Power on 11/29/2020 09:33:00 PM Rating: 5
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By the Grace of G-d
The 7 Noachide Commandments teach goodness and kindness for all mankind.
7 NOAHIDE LAWS
NOAHIDE Q&A
Locate Sources for the 7 Commandments
To read this source information in Spanish, click here
Five of the Noahide Commandments are explicitly found in different verses in the Book of Genesis, and one is found in Leviticus. The remaining one (and in fact all them) can be inferred from a single verse in Genesis. [1]
1. Do Not Worship a False Deity
Genesis 2:16 states: "And L-rd G-d commanded to the man, saying…" This Divine command to Adam implies that only the One True G-d, the Creator of the spiritual and physical realms, should be obeyed and honored as the Deity, and the greatest honor is to serve and worship Him. Thus, one should serve and worship only the One True G-d, and not any idol. [1]
2. Do Not Curse G-d's Name
Leviticus 24:10-17 relates the incident of a Jew who violated the injunction of Exodus 22:27 and blasphemed in anger. Moreover, Leviticus 24:15 in Hebrew states: "ish ish ('any man') who curses his G-d shall bear his sin." Why the double expression of "ish ish" (which literally means "a man, a man")? It means to include all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles. This teaches that it is prohibited for Gentiles as well to curse G-d's Name (G-d forbid!). [2]
3. Do Not Commit Murder or Injury
The edict against murder, and the punishment for this transgression, is stated in Genesis 9:5-6: "…of man for his brother, I [G-d] will demand the soul of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, among man, his blood shall be shed; for in the image of G-d He made man."
4. Do Not Have Forbidden Sexual Relations
Five of the six types of intercourse relations that are forbidden by G-d to Gentiles are covered in Genesis 2:24: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." This verse explicitly forbids relations of a man with his mother, with a woman who has ever been his father's domestic partner or certified wife, with a woman who is currently a domestic partner or certified wife of another man, with another male, or with an animal. A Gentile is also forbidden to have relations with his maternal sister, which is learned from Gen. 20:13: "Moreover, she is indeed my sister, my father's daughter, though not my mother's daughter; and she became my wife." (Note that Abraham said this to appease Abimelech. It was actually only figuratively true in his case, since Sarah was the daughter of Abraham's brother. So they had the same paternal grandfather, who people often referred to as "father.")
It also was universally accepted that father-daughter relations would be included, as evidenced by the disgrace of Lot after he had relations with his two daughters, following G-d's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:29-36, and Rashi's explanation of Gen. 20:1). In addition to the abomination to G-d of relations of a male with a male, relations of a female with a female are likewise an abomination to G-d, whichis learned from the fact that they are both included in the subjects of the verse Lev. 18:3, which speaks against the immoral practices of the ancient Egyptians and Canaanites, and which Lev.18:30 refers to as "abominable traditions." The Midrash (Sifra) specifically names these abominations: "A man would marry a man, a woman would marry a woman, and a woman would be married to two men."
5. Do Not Commit Theft
The prohibition of theft is contained within the permission which G-d granted to Adam and Hava (Eve) in Genesis 2:16 to eat from the trees of the garden. This implies that if the permission had not been granted, they would have been forbidden to do so, because the property did not belong to them. This applied specifically to the fruit of the Tree of "Knowledge of Good and Evil" which was forbidden for them to take, under penalty of death (Genesis 2:17). This Noahide commandment was cited explicitly by Abraham in Genesis 21:25.
6. Don't Eat Meat that was Taken from a Live Animal
Adam and Hava (Eve) were not given permission to kill animals for food, and this remained in effect until after the Flood. G-d permitted the eating of meat for the first time to Noah and his family after they left the Ark, which is why G-d at that time added the seventh commandment, which prohibits the eating of meat that was severed from a living animal (even if it was stunned and insensitive). This commandment given to Noah is recorded in Genesis 9:4: "But meat, with its soul [which is in] its blood you shall not eat."
7. Establish Laws and Courts of Justice
G-d commanded Noah regarding the trial and punishment of a murderer, as it says in Genesis 9:6, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, among man, his blood shall be shed…" This refers to a Noahide commandment to judge and penalize a murderer. This is explained as follows by the Talmudic Sages: "Whoever sheds the blood of man" (referring to the murderer), "among man" (i.e., he is to be prosecuted in a court by a man who is qualified to testify as a witness), "his blood shall be shed" (if convicted, he is liable to capital punishment by the court). The Noahide Code specifies that Gentile societies are obligated to abide by justice through establishing a system of righteous courts of law.
Timeline of G-d's re-affirming the Noahide Commandments at Mount Sinai, where He commanded them with specific details as part of the eternal Torah of Moses:
As G-d decided for reasons known to Him, some of the verses in the Torah that refer to these events are not placed in chronological order. Here they are presented according to the order of what took place:
1st day / Ex. 19:1-2. The Israelite nation encamped at Mount Sinai, on the 45th day after G-d led them out in their exodus from slavery in Egypt.
2nd day / Ex. 19:3-8. Moses ascended to the top of Mt. Sinai to receive instructions from G-d, and then he descended. The Israelites agreed that they would obediently enter into the Jewish covenant, when they said, "Everything that G-d has spoken we shall do!"
3rd day / Ex. 19:8 (starting from "Moses brought back the words of the people to G-d") to Ex. 19:9 (up to … "and they will believe in you [Moses], also forever"). Moses then ascended Mt. Sinai again, reported to G-d, received His next instructions, and then descended.
4th day / Ex. 19:9 (starting from "Moses told the words of the people to G-d") to Ex. 19:14, and then the continuation skips to Ex. 24:1-4 (through "Moses wrote all the words of G-d"). Moses ascended Mt. Sinai again to receive instructions from G-d, and descended to tell the people all the Divine laws that had been commanded up until that time.
Note that the recounting and recording of the Seven Noahide Commandments by Moses took place at Mount Sinai on this day, two days before G-d spoke openly to the entire Jewish nation. In Ex. 24:3, it says "Moses came and told the people all the words of G-d and all the laws…" Here, "all the laws" refers to the Seven Noahide Commandments and a few of the Jewish Commandments, all of which the Israelites had already been commanded before they arrived at Mt. Sinai. (Moses told these commandments to the Israelites at Marah, after they crossed through the sea – see Exodus 15:25.)
In Ex. 24:4, "Moses wrote all the words of G-d" means that at that time, he wrote down the Book of Genesis – that contains the verses which inform us of the earlier Covenant of the Rainbow and the Noahide Commandments – and the Book of Exodus up to that point. Thus, G-d commanded upon the Jewish people that based upon the revelation at Mount Sinai, they would have the responsibility for preserving and publicizing the Noahide Commandments and all their details, which are for all the nations of the world for all generations.
For the explanation of how Moses presented this Book of the Covenant to the Israelites, see our web page on "The 7 Noahide Laws in the Book of the Covenant"
5th day / Ex. 24:4 (from "He [Moses] arose early in the morning…") to Ex. 24:11. This is the day that Moses built an altar, and read to the people the "Book of the Covenant" (the Book of Genesis, including the Seven Noahide Commandments, and part of Exodus up to that point).
6th day / Ex. 19:16-20:18, and Ex. 24:12-15. G-d openly spoke 10 of the 613 Jewish Commandments to the people, and Moses then ascended Mount Sinai, to learn more of the Jewish Commandments from G-d for 40 days and 40 nights. (Many of these Jewish commandments are recorded in Ex. 20:19 to Ex. 23:22.)
[1] The Oral Torah (Tractate Sanhedrin, ch. 7) explains how all of these 7 Noahide Commandments are encoded within the Hebrew text of the verse Genesis 2:16: "And L-rd G-d commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.' "
[2] Tractate Sanhedrin, p. 56a.
NEXT >> Establish Judicial Courts
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Noahide Living Wills
Unite To Study – Video classes
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A Moment of Silence in Schools
"Living the Moment" Webinar
Organization: Ask Noah
Book: "The Divine Code"
Book: "To Perfect the World"
Book: "Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge"
Booklet: "Prayers, Blessings, Principles of Faith, and Divine Service for Noahides"
Music Video: "The Seven Lights of Noah"
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This holiday collection is natural and warm with loads of elegance for this holiday season. Fresh copper & green magnolia leaves are accented with gold pinecones, feathers, shimmering twigs and gold pomegranates. Gold lacquered magnolia leaves are nestled in the mix of this beautiful magnolia wreath and magnolia centerpiece. Don't miss this gorgeous collection this holiday!


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RetroActive 50: Little King's Story
Crimm:
We're doing our 50th RetroActive on the year 2009 for Little King's Story. If you want to hear how we settled on that, check out the NWR Patreon.
Comments posted here may be used in the relevant episode. Recording will happen in Late September.
pokepal148:
This man just called me a midget! That is no way to treat your king!
GUARDS! EXECUTE THIS MAN!
I am shocked by how addictive it is to build up your kingdom. I'm supposed to be crossing a big field of sunflowers to progress the main plot but I found a forest area with a bunch of red onion enemies and I can just rake in tons of money from that. Even if you don't have the level of customization that something like My Life as a King does it still hits a similar point for me of seeing this large city area develop out of nothing.
For anyone having issues with the PC version, turning off Post Processing seems to have smoothed everything out for me. I'm still saving regularly but the framerate is much more smooth and as a nice bonus, it got rid of the shitty looking bloom lighting at night.
One minor issue I have with the game is that the areas become difficult to navigate when you've defeated the Guardian but you haven't developed it yet. There's a specific area with a sort of stone henge type structure in the middle that makes for a nice landmark that makes it easy to figure out where you are relative to everything else around it in the world but once you beat the guardian that whole structure just disappears and if you don't devote the resources to developing the area you just end up with an empty field with no landmark whatsoever that you can use to help with navigation.
Why did my kingdom get attacked by a freaking UFO??
Like I don't know if I want that to be explained.
How do Aliens write letters? Why do they write in l33t speak?
TOPHATANT123:
Okay here's my initial impressions after 2 hours with the game on PC.
I would say my overall gut feel of it is it's a less polished Pikmin with an upgrade tree. I say less polished because I feel like Pikmin is so perfectly set up for what it's trying to be, it's a time management game where you've got to spread out your resources. In Pikmin you see fractions on every item that tell you how you need to delegate these resources, and it's obvious which Pikmin can do what.
In this game, it seems from my admittedly early playtime, that the AI isn't smart enough to keep doing a task if you leave them to it. If you go off screen, the town's person will stop what they're doing and run to you, resetting the countdown timer. Isn't this where the strategy comes from in Pikmin?
What am I supposed to do as the player when the timer is counting down? Did this game copy Pikmin's mechanics without an understanding of why they work? But it's still early days and I'm willing to give this game time, maybe you get an item or something that allows you to multitask. Or maybe it's possible but finicky.
Playing on PC I expected the game to use the mouse, as it's a port of a Wii game. But no it only uses the keyboard. Makes me wonder why it only ever showed up on Wii and PC. You could have put this on anything because it doesn't use pointer controls at all.
In terms of tone, setting and story. I like the idea of being a ruler, that kind of thing appeals to me. Although it's a turn off for me if it gets too silly. I bought Reins Kings & Queens on the concept alone, but I found the tone to be too slapstick for me to get invested in the decisions I made or the story in general. Little King's Story doesn't seem as 4th wall breaking as Reigns, but I wouldn't say I feel any urgency or intrigue or motivation coming from the story either. Not that kind of game I guess.
I noticed early on that the music sounded like it was public domain stuff. Checked online to find out that the entire soundtrack is public domain. Not a huge issue, as what they have fits the tone. Overcooked 1, is one of the best games on Switch and that uses royalty free music.
Your starting kingdom has a job rate of 0%. Once you reach full unemployment, there's probably something wrong with your economy. Unless you've reached post scarcity abundance.
The enemies seem to be called UMA's, not sure if it's been explained what that stands for.
I would say the most enjoyable part of the game so far has been the boss fights. The king only has 3 HP and your people can die quickly, so both boss battles I've fought have felt exciting.
On the subject of having only 3HP, make sure you save often, because if you die it takes you back to the title screen. I know this because I was having my people dig a hole and with nothing to do in the mean time I went to grab my phone. Little did I know that some monsters had jumped out of the hole and started attacking me, the guards don't attack unless you command them to, so within a few seconds the king was dead.


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Mertak Tombok is een bestuurslaag in het regentschap Centraal-Lombok van de provincie West-Nusa Tenggara, Indonesië. Mertak Tombok telt 5397 inwoners (volkstelling 2010).

Plaats in West-Nusa Tenggara

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The 60 greatest old-time radio shows of the 20th century
Schiller Park, IL : Radio Spirits, p1999.
30 sound discs (60 min. each) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (58 p. : ill. ; 12 cm.)
CD 1. Walter Cronkite, audio foreword (1999) -- Mercury Theater on the Air (10-30-38) War of the worlds with Orson Welles -- CD 2. Abbott & Costello Show (4-17-45) Who's on first? -- Adventures of Philip Marlowe (6-17-47) -- Red wind with Van Heflin -- CD 3. Chase & Sanborn Hour (10-30-38) with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy -- CD 4. Six Shooter (12-20-53) Britt Ponset's Christmas carol with James Stewart -- Baby Snooks Show (5-1-51) Report card blues with Fanny Brice -- CD 5. Escape (1-14-48) Leinengen vs. the Ants with William Conrad -- Fibber McGee & Molly (12-9-41) I can get it for you wholesale with Jim & Marian Jordan -- CD 6. On a Note of Triumph (5-13-45) Norman Corwin with Martin Gabel -- CD 7. CBS Radio Workshop (1-27-56) Brave new world -- CD 8. Burns & Allen (1-8-48) with Jack Benny -- Jack Benny Program (3-2-52) with Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, George Burns, Groucho Marx -- CD 9. Lux Radio Theatre (6-2-47) The Jazz singer with Al Jolson -- CD 10. Suspense (8-21-43) Sorry, wrong number with Agnes Moorehead -- Grand Central Station (12-24-49) Miracle for Christmas with Mason Adams -- CD 11. Philco Radio Time (1-29-47) The Road to Hollywood with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour -- Saint (8-6-50) The Corpse said ouch with Vincent Price -- CD 12. Have Gun, Will Travel (11-27-60) From here to Boston with John Dehner -- Vic & Sade (9-6-44) Muted silver moonbeam chimes with Art Van Harvey -- Lum & Abner (12-19-48) Christmas show with Chester Lauck, Norris Goff.
CD 13. We Hold These Truths (12-15-41) Norman Corwin with James Stewart -- CD 14. Arthur Godfrey Time (10-21-53) -- Walter Winchell Show (3-27-49) -- X-minus One (12-7-55) Nightfall with Wendell Holmes -- Adventures of Superman (9-25-45) Origin retold with Clayton Collyer -- CD 15. Mercury Summer Theater (6-21-46) The Hitchhiker with Orson Welles -- Big Town (1940) Death rides the highway with Edward G. Robinson -- CD 16. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (1956) The Todd Matter with Bob Bailey -- CD 17. Columbia Presents Corwin (7-17-45) The Undecided Molecule with Groucho Marx -- Dimension X (8-18-50) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury with Roger DeKoven -- CD 18. Eddie Cantor Show (6-9-43) with Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Groucho Marx -- Escape (3-17-50) The Skeleton key with Vincent Price -- CD 19. Chase & Sanborn Hour (12-12-37) with Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy and Mae West -- CD 20. Cavalcade of America (9-22-41) and (9-29-41) Native land with Burgess Meredith -- CD 21. Fred Allen Show (5-26-46) with Jack Benny -- Lights Out (4-6-38) Cat wife with Boris Karloff -- CD 22. Jack Benny Program (3-28-48) Money or your life; (4-4-48) The next show -- CD 23. Command Performance (2-15-45) Dick Tracy in B-flat with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, and Frank Sinatra -- Columbia presents Corwin (08-14-45) Fourteen August with Orsen Welles.
CD 24. Dragnet (12-22-49) .22 rifle for Christmas with Jack Webb -- The Shadow (1938) White God with Orson Welles -- CD 25. The adventures of Sam Spade, detective (06-20-48) The death bed caper with Howard Duff -- The Bickersons (03-16-47) with Don Ameche and Frances Langford -- CD 26. InnerSanctum mysteries (10-02-45) The shadow of death with Richard Widmark -- The Great Gildersleeve (12-21-41) McGee's Christmas gifts with Hal Peary -- CD 27. I love Lucy (02-26-52) with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz -- Arch Oboler's plays (03-09-40) Johnny got his gun with James Cagney -- CD 28. Suspense (02-03-49) Backseat driver) with Jim and Marian Jordan -- The Lone Ranger (06-30-48) Origin show with Bruce Beemer -- CD 29. Gunsmoke (05-06-56) The photographer with William Conrad -- Let's pretend (08-23-47) Mell-a-lot -- CD 30. Bold venture (1950's) Deadly merchandise with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall -- Quiet please (08-09-48) The thing on the fourble board with Ernest Chappell.
Radio plays.
Radio programs.
Radio comedies.
Mystery radio programs.
Cronkite, Walter.
CBS News.
Sixty of the greatest radio shows of the 20th century selected by Walter Cronkite.
SCD 791.4475 SIX 30 DISCS
For many years, these familiar words rang out from news broadcaster, Walter Cronkite. Labeled as the most respected and identifiable journalist of the 20th century, Mr. Cronkite has spent a lifetime reporting the news.His illustrious career began in radio and as a newspaper reporter. He eventually moved into television and joined CBS in 1950. In 1962 he began his long tenure as anchorman at the CBS News desk.As legendary newsman, author, documentary film maker and former anchorman, Walter Cronkite embodies credibility. For this reason, Radio Spirits has asked him to help select the 60 all-time greatest radio shows of the 20th century.Listeners will never forget the day martians invaded the earth as Orson Welles broadcast his legendary War of the Worlds. The hysteria that followed was a clear indicator of the power of radio. Even today, the hilarious comedy routine by Abbott & Costello, Who's on First, is enjoyed by all generations.As we enter the 21st century, radio's contribution will forever be recognized as a valuable piece of American history and culture. This outstanding collection represents the best of early radio programming.


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ICH E9 guidelines recommend that a detailed SAP is prepared before breaking the trial blind. However, the guidelines do not provide specific guidance on SAP content.
The project included: identification of existing SAP guidance; identifying and reviewing published SAPs; a survey of current practice within UKCRC registered Clinical Trial Units (rCTU) and a Delphi survey to establish consensus on SAP content. The Delphi survey included rCTU statisticians, CONSORT and SPIRIT guideline authors, experienced statisticians in the pharmaceutical industry, journal editors and regulators culminating in a face-to-face consensus meeting attended by experts from each demographic. These components informed the development of guidance for SAPs which subsequently underwent critical review by rCTU statisticians and experts from the consensus meeting, followed by piloting of the guidance document.
Apart from ICH E9, no existing SAP guidance was identified. A 100% response rate from the rCTU survey was achieved which highlighted diversity in current practice confirming support for developing comprehensive guidance. The Delphi survey reached consensus on 42% (46/110) of identified components. The expert panel agreed that 63 components should be included in the guidance. The guidance was written with support of examples identified from published and unpublished SAPs.
A comprehensive SAP guidance document has been developed in collaboration with the network of rCTU statisticians with the aim of facilitating its acceptance and implementation. Although the guidance document is intended primarily for CTU adoption, given the representation involved in its developments it is anticipated that it will have wider applicability.


Irkut has extended the flight-test envelope of the MC-21-300 this week, following the twinjet's maiden sortie on 28 May.
The Russian manufacturer says the first test aircraft has completed two more flights from its plant in Irkutsk, Siberia.
The flightplan for flight two "included checking of take-off and landing characteristics and performance of the aircraft systems", says Irkut.
The aircraft's third flight, which occurred earlier today, lasted 1.5h, during which "the range of flight modes was extended and the configuration of high-lift devices was examined to change from take-off to cruising".
OPINION: Can Russia make the MC-21 a sales success?


text:
Procynosuchus (« crocodile à avant de chien ») est un genre éteint de cynodontes ayant vécu au cours du Permien supérieur. Il est considéré comme l'un des cynodontes les plus anciens et les plus primitifs. Des restes de Procynosuchus ont été trouvés en Allemagne, en Zambie et en Afrique du Sud. Il mesurait environ 60 cm de long.

Paléobiologie
Comme il était l'un des premiers cynodontes, de nombreuses caractéristiques de Procynosuchus étaient primitives, mais certaines le distinguaient des autres thérapsides primitifs.

Certaines de ces caractéristiques ont été interprétées comme des adaptations à un mode de vie semi-aquatique. Par exemple, les zygapophyses des vertèbres permettent un haut degré de flexibilité latérale : elles étaient peut-être utilisées par Procynosuchus pour se mouvoir de façon anguilliforme ou nager comme une anguille. Sa queue était également exceptionnellement longue pour un cynodonte. Les longs arcs hémaux auraient donné à la queue une grande surface verticale pour une meilleure propulsion dans l'eau. Les os du pied relativement plats peuvent aussi avoir été une adaptation à la nage, les pieds pouvant avoir été utilisés comme des pagaies. Des crêtes sur le fémur sont une indication de muscles fléchisseurs puissants qui pourraient avoir stabilisé la jambe lors de la nage. Lorsque la cuisse est poussée vers l'arrière dans l'eau, la jambe a tendance à fléchir vers l'avant. De puissants muscles fléchisseurs auraient pu aider à pousser sur la jambe avec le fémur, fournissant une poussée suffisante pour nager.

Références

Genre de thérapsides (nom scientifique)
Thérapside du Permien
Paléontologie en Afrique du Sud
Paléontologie en Allemagne
Paléontologie en Zambie
Taxon fossile décrit en 1938
Taxon fossile décrit par Robert Broom


text:
Late-game rally lifts Holden 12 All-Stars over Rutland for District Championship
WORCESTER — The Holden Little League 12-year-old All-Stars saved their best for last, plating five runs in the sixth and final inning to capture the Major Division District 4 title with a 9-4 victory over tournament finalist Rutland LL at Worcester's Ted Williams Field on July 13.
Holden, 8-0 in post-season play, advances to the Section 1 Tournament on Wednesday against District 1 champion Pittsfield American to begin round-robin play. The team then moves on to face District 2 champion Agawam on Thursday and District 3 champs Leominster National on Friday, with locations and times to be announced.
"This team has matured so much in the past year. I couldn't be more proud of them," said Holden head coach Corey LeBlanc post-game. "This year, we had a new bunch of kids, and they just bonded so well. The town of Holden really rallied behind them. I couldn't be more proud."
"I'm super proud of these kids," Rutland head coach Rich Mall said of his team's efforts in post-season play. "They did everything we asked them to do at practices, pulling for each other, representing themselves and the town of Rutland. I couldn't be more proud of what these kids have accomplished.
"We set expectations very high, and we told them what we were expecting from them. We're really proud of how far the Rutland program has come to get into two semifinals and two District finals."
Holden jumped ahead in the first inning, putting a run on the board. Lead-off hitter Alex Zekos scratched out an infield hit and would come around on a Matt Bjorkman (4-for-4) single up the middle. Rutland answered right back, scoring three runs courtesy of Liam Mall's titanic three-run homerun that plated Nathan Roy and Ethan DiVito ahead of him. DiVito would go on to add his own four-bagger with a third-inning solo shot.
Holden added a run in the third frame on a Cooper LeBlanc sacrifice fly, and two more in the fifth on a Bjorkman two RBI double, setting the stage for the climactic finish.
Aidan Montgomery led off and cracked a sharp base hit up the middle before Marty Stelmach laid down a perfect bunt single. Starting pitcher Sam Perry was walked intentionally to load the bases, which were cleared on a triple sliced down the right field line by Connor Keaney (4-for-4) that broke things open with a 7-4 lead. Bjorkman delivered Keaney with a single. Jamie Herlihy laced a base hit up the middle to score Keaney and put this one out of reach.
"To see Connor Keaney come through today and Matt Bjorkman with the bats, I couldn't be more proud," said Coach LeBlanc. "We changed the lineup today, and I was a little nervous to do it, but I felt we needed a spark. I have to tip my hat to Rutland. They played defense, they hit. We just outlasted them a bit at the end. They have a lot to be proud of."
"I always love being that person to get all the runs in," said Bjorkman. "It was just unbelievable.
I knew our bats would come alive eventually. We didn't give up at any time. I try to keep my team up and stay happy."
"Some guys were a little shaken up because we were down, but we knew what to do," Keaney explained. "I just aim for base hits and try to get on base."
While the Holden bats were coming alive, it was Perry on the mound going the distance and looking sharp, striking out eight and holding Rutland at bay while the offense took over.
"I knew that I missed a few pitches and didn't throw them where I wanted to, so I just kept trying to throw it where I wanted to and keep throwing strikes," Perry said. "In the beginning we don't usually hit our best, but once we get used to the game and used to the field, we start getting hits and runs."
"He's just the toughest kid," LeBlanc said of his standout pitcher. "He's pitched lights out for the last three weeks."
"These kids had a great attitude. They actually like each other," said Mall of his team's cohesiveness. "We spend a lot of time having chicken and pizza and barbecues together and really coming together as a team. That's probably the thing I'll remember the most, that they're friends off the field as well as on the field, and that makes it easier.
"You have to get people comfortable with playing different roles that they don't necessarily play in the regular season, and they did a great job in adapting to what we needed them to do. Some kids went from starters to reserves. Some went from hitting third in the lineup to hitting ninth in the lineup. They bought into what we were trying to do, and they did a fantastic job."
Members of the Holden 12-year-old LL All-Star team are Matt Bjorkman, Tyler George, Jamie Herlihy, Parker Higgins, Charlie Johnson, Connor Keaney, Cooper LeBlanc, Aidan Montgomery, Bryan Moore, Cam Morris, Sam Perry, Marty Stelmach and Alex Zekos. Head coach is Corey LeBlanc, assisted by Sean Higgins and Bill Johnson.
Members of the Rutland 12-year-old LL All-Star team are Jack Santimore, Matthew Moreno, D.J Leroux, Ty Berry, William Ehrenworth, Ethan DiVito, Shea McNulty, Nathan Roy, Liam Mall, Hayden Moynihan, Brayden Allaire, John Geloso and Jack Kelly. Head coach is Rich Mall, assisted by Sean McNulty and Jon DiVito.
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Casalinova has been in the fire investigation field for many years. We work day and night to serve our clients in any and every situation we can. Our team of certified fire investigators are on the call when you need them the most. From Indiana to West Virginia, fatal fires to water investigations, Casalinova is just one call away. With fire investigators that hold certifications from National Association of Fire Investigators and constant education via International Association of Fire Investigators, Public Agency Training Council, we make sure nothing goes unnoticed. No matter what you need, our fire experts are here for you. Our phone lines are open 24/7, don't hesitate to contact us.
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Casalinova is an award-winning firm specializing in house fire investigation. We serve clients throughout the United States and Worldwide, including private businesses, manufacturers, insurance companies and adjusting companies, individuals, law firms, and attorneys.


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+ (void)stubAllRequestsWithResponseData:(NSData *)data
{
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+ (void)stubAllRequestsWithStubResponse:(OHHTTPStubsResponseBlock)responseBlock
{
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    {
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}

+ (void)stubAllRequestsWithNetworkDown
{
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Low-maintenance Management: Using a Simple Classification to Rate Employees' Productivity and Support Requirements by Jennifer A. O?Brien, M.S.O.D.
by Jennifer A. O?Brien, M.S.O.D.
Employees vary in their productivity and their need for guidance, support, and other inputs that may be called ?maintenance.? This article provides a guide to classifying your team members by a gross ratio of perceived managerial inputs to productivity outputs. It also gives some approaches to understanding your own reactions and dealing with the needs of each group.


In your book <<python for kids>> chapter 13, when I run the program, the python shell has a error I can't understand. my python version 3.6.0. Thank you for your reply!!
You may see error messages written to the shell when you close the game window. This is because when you close the window, the code is breaking out of the while loop, and Python is complaining about it.
The is exactly the error you are seeing when you run that code and then close the window. You are stopping (interrupting) Python while it is running the code, and an error message is displayed as a consequence.