Wednesday, May 30, 2018
White-teachers-agree-that-they-need-racial-bias-Training
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
The Reality of Death and The Gift of Life
One of the most important and pervasive messages of Psalm 90:1-12 is that life is short. Death is near at hand. The psalm goes to great lengths to express that truth: our lives are like grass that “fades and withers” (90:6); “our years come to an end like a sigh” (90:9); our days “are soon gone, and we fly away” (90:10). That message may at first seem negative. It may seem even more depressing that our human limits are a sign of God’s wrath. Indeed, Psalm 90:1-12 may seem to run counter to the New Testament’s hopeful word that in Christ death has lost its sting (1 Corinthians 15:55). But in fact this psalm is entirely consistent with the message of resurrection. What it really says is that life and eternity belong to God, not to us. The emphasis on death is also closely tied to the awareness that we are sinful creatures. As verse 8 says, our sins are set before God. They are a sure sign of our limitations, our finitude. Therefore, our lives—and our resurrection—come from the Creator and giver of life. Psalm 90’s focus on death reins us in and reminds us that we live because God holds us in life.This ironic portrayal of the righteous and the wicked in the Psalms—which is implied in Psalm 90—has important implications for how we live. As the Psalms testify, those who refuse to admit their human limits (and refuse to confess their sins) inevitably act violently towards others. They take advantage of others because they believe they are entitled to more of the world than they really are (see again Psalm 36:3-4). But those who acknowledge that they live within the sovereignty of God are more willing to promote the well-being of others, as God intends. In other words, the perspective on human limitation Psalm 90 gives is not intended just to “put us in our place” in relation to God. It also helps us to live rightly towards other human beings.
If the main message of Psalm 90 is that God is eternal and we are not, then the wisdom of the psalm is in knowing how to react to that reality. The psalm’s main “advice” comes in verse 12: “teach us to count our days.” This line certainly does not mean to focus on how few days we have. Such a negative focus would rob us of the joy available to us in our days, however brief they may be. The context of the psalm also argues against the notion that we can count on longevity. Verse 10 declares that human life is short even for those who are physically sound. The wisdom of “counting our days” seems rather to be in recognizing that each day is a gift.
Time.” The song emphasizes loving and cherishing each moment. We should love “the time it takes to watch the sunrise” and even the time it takes waiting in line, driving a child to school, any time we have we should find in it an opportunity to cherish the gifts of God. Our time, our lives, are surely such gifts.
If Psalm 90 is taken seriously as a prayer of Moses, it might lead us to think of and relate to Israel’s existence in the wilderness. Relying on God to provide manna, they had to live by faith each day. With this in mind, Psalm 90:12 might be translated “teach us to live day by day.” The point of this advice, and the point of Israel’s living on manna in the desert, is that life with God must be lived by faith. Living by faith means we recognize that God, who is eternal, watches over us and holds our future. Living by any other view of the world will lead us either to squander our days because we think they are unlimited or to fret over the brevity of life as though we could change it.
Understood this way, Psalm 90:1-12 gives very much the same perspective Jesus gave his disciples when he told them not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34). His point, of course, was not that we should avoid planning for the future nor that we should shirk our responsibilities. Rather, we must recognize that none of our preparation for or worry about the future will add a day to our lives. Instead of fretting over such things, Jesus insisted that with the time we have we strive for the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33). Such striving shows that we know what to do with our lives. We know truly how to “count our days.”
A Psalm and A Prayer
Psalm 8:1-9 “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Psalm 8:3-4—KJV).
David, the shepherd boy destined to become Israel’s greatest king and ancestor of the Messiah, spent untold hours looking at the heavens as he watched over his sheep. As he meditated on the beauty and extent of God’s creation, David marveled that God took note of human beings and even cared for him. He concluded that God watched over His fold of people in ways similar to his watching over his fold of sheep. In addition, God revealed His love and care for David to such an extent that He inspired David to write these words, beloved by all believers everywhere, “The Lord is my Shepherd” (Psalm 23:1).
The Book of Genesis reveals why our world is no longer as God created it originally. Still, David wrote in poetry what the Apostle Paul later explained about our knowledge of God, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made” (Romans 1:20). Through reason and reflection, nature reveals many truths about God. Because God cares for us, He also took time to speak to people, work in their lives, and inspire them to write the Bible.
Knowing that people sometimes misunderstand mere words, the Word of God became flesh, lived among us, and demonstrated the grace and truth of God (see John 1:14-18). Jesus proclaimed God’s care by revealing, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (see John 10:11-18).
In his address to God, the psalmist calls God by the name God revealed to Moses: “LORD” = YHWH. God exists, as his name indicates and reveals. More than just existing, the psalmist proclaims that “LORD” befits his name, for God rules as sovereign. He is ruling over and working through all that he created. God’s name is majestic over all the earth, unlike the tribal gods of Israel’s neighbors. The psalmist could recall all that God did before and after Moses, as God ruled from above the heavens and continues to do so.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Friday, May 18, 2018
Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Sensors Lead A New Age Of Man-Machine Collaboration - StumbleUpon
Sensors Lead A New Age Of Man-Machine Collaboration - StumbleUpon
This mixed reality makes it possible for humans to enter new worlds where both physical and digital objects — and the data both generate — assimilate. The goal, Hartwell says, is to have the sensors connect human and virtual worlds, enhancing both.
This mixed reality makes it possible for humans to enter new worlds where both physical and digital objects — and the data both generate — assimilate. The goal, Hartwell says, is to have the sensors connect human and virtual worlds, enhancing both.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Saturday, May 5, 2018
Friday, May 4, 2018
“Dear Daughter…” 7 BIG Promises Every Man Should Make To His Children
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