How we spend our time shows where our heart is!

How we spend our time shows where our heart is!

Matthew 6:33

What was the first of the Seven Laws of Success? Set the right goal!
 Jesus clearly established the highest-priority goal for His disciples in this verse. He did this because He knows that the main goal, our highest priority, determines the preparations, efforts, and zeal for reaching it.
Suppose someone offered us a tremendous sum of money, perhaps billions of dollars, but the exact amount would be determined by how well we could learn to speak German in two month's time. We would embark on the most intense crash-course program of learning in our life! We would study from morning to night, burn the midnight oil, listen to language tapes, carry flash cards wherever we went, and seek out fluent German-speakers so we could practice with them.
During those two months, no one could drag us near a time-wasting television program. We would probably allow nothing to interfere other than necessary physical activities to sustain life itself. All for money!
Notice what Jesus says earlier in Matthew 6:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (verses 19-21)

Consider these scriptures in the context of what Jesus says in verse 33. Our hearts are in the things to which we devote ourselves, the things we spend our time pursuing. He is helping us prioritize by stating and illustrating principles that will help us make right choices in managing time.

Every day another 24 hours or 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds is credited to our account, and we have to spend them. Whether we are a billionaire or a dirt farmer, except for those who die that day, all have the same amount of time. Jesus says how we spend it shows where our heart is.

Of course, Bible Study and prayer are very high priority activities. But Satan also knows this! He also knows it would be very difficult to change our minds regarding their value if he confronted us directly. So he makes use of subtle, indirect approaches, and all too often he succeeds in diverting our attention from these high priority concerns.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Simplify Your Life!

Related Topics: Distraction | Goals | Kingdom of God | Priorities | Time | Time Management | Zeal

Matthew 6:33
Here the term righteousness has the sense of seeking all of God's spiritual blessings, favor, image, and rewards. We see in this verse not only a broad New Testament application of the term but also, more importantly, its priority to life. This dovetails perfectly with the hunger-and-thirst metaphor in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:6). It is not enough to ambitiously yearn to accomplish. According to Jesus, God's Kingdom and His righteousness are the very top priorities in all of life. Seeking God's righteousness is that important.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Beatitudes, Part Four: Hungering and Thirsting After Righteousness

Krakatoa, Sound around the world!

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The Sound So Loud That It Circled the Earth Four Times

It was heard in over 50 different locations around the globe.

Nautilus |

• By: Aatish Bhatia

A lithograph of the massive 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. From The eruption of Krakatoa, and subsequent phenomena, 1888; Parker & Coward; via Wikipedia.

On 27 August 1883, the Earth let out a noise louder than any it has made since.

It was 10:02 a.m. local time when the sound emerged from the island of Krakatoa, which sits between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It was heard 1,300 miles away in the Andaman and Nicobar islands (“extraordinary sounds were heard, as of guns firing”); 2,000 miles away in New Guinea and Western Australia (“a series of loud reports, resembling those of artillery in a north-westerly direction”); and even 3,000 miles away in the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues, near Mauritius* (“coming from the eastward, like the distant roar of heavy guns.”¹) In all, it was heard by people in over 50 different geographical locations, together spanning an area covering a thirteenth of the globe. 

Think, for a moment, just how crazy this is. If you’re in Boston and someone tells you that they heard a sound coming from New York City, you’re probably going to give them a funny look. But Boston is a mere 200 miles from New York. What we’re talking about here is like being in Boston and clearly hearing a noise coming from Dublin, Ireland. Travelling at the speed of sound (766 miles or 1,233 kilometers per hour), it takes a noise about 4 hours to cover that distance. This is the most distant sound that has ever been heard in recorded history.

So what could possibly create such an earth-shatteringly loud bang? A volcano on Krakatoa had just erupted with a force so great that it tore the island apart, emitting a plume of smoke that reached 17 miles into the atmosphere, according to a geologist who witnessed it¹. You could use this observation to calculate that stuff spewed out of the volcano at over 1,600 miles per hour—or nearly half a mile per second. That’s more than twice the speed of sound.

This explosion created a deadly tsunami with waves over a hundred feet (30 meters) in height. One hundred sixty-five coastal villages and settlements were swept away and entirely destroyed. In all, the Dutch (the colonial rulers of Indonesia at the time) estimated the death toll at 36,417, while other estimates exceed 120,000^2,3. 

The British ship Norham Castle was 40 miles from Krakatoa at the time of the explosion. The ship’s captain wrote in his log, “So violent are the explosions that the ear-drums of over half my crew have been shattered. My last thoughts are with my dear wife. I am convinced that the Day of Judgement has come.”²

A map showing the area in which the Krakatoa explosion could be heard. From The eruption of Krakatoa, and subsequent phenomena, 1888.

***

In general, sounds are caused not by the end of the world but by fluctuations in air pressure. A barometer at the Batavia gasworks (100 miles away from Krakatoa) registered the ensuing spike in pressure at over 2.5 inches of mercury^1,2. That converts to over 172 decibels of sound pressure, an unimaginably loud noise. To put that in context, if you were operating a jackhammer you’d be subject to about 100 decibels. The human threshold for pain is near 130 decibels, and if you had the misfortune of standing next to a jet engine, you’d experience a 150 decibel sound. (A 10 decibel increase is perceived by people as sounding roughly twice as loud.) The Krakatoa explosion registered 172 decibels at 100 miles from the source. This is so astonishingly loud, that it’s inching up against the limits of what we mean by “sound.”

When you hum a note or speak a word, you’re wiggling air molecules back and forth dozens or hundreds of times per second, causing the air pressure to be low in some places and high in other places. The louder the sound, the more intense these wiggles, and the larger the fluctuations in air pressure. But there’s a limit to how loud a sound can get. At some point, the fluctuations in air pressure are so large that the low pressure regions hit zero pressure—a vacuum—and you can’t get any lower than that. This limit happens to be about 194 decibels for a sound in Earth’s atmosphere. Any louder, and the sound is no longer just passing through the air, it’s actually pushing the air along with it, creating a pressurized burst of moving air known as a shock wave. 

Closer to Krakatoa, the sound was well over this limit, producing a blast of high pressure air so powerful that it ruptured the eardrums of sailors 40 miles away. As this sound travelled thousands of miles, reaching Australia and the Indian Ocean, the wiggles in pressure started to die down, sounding more like a distant gunshot. Over 3,000 miles into its journey, the wave of pressure grew too quiet for human ears to hear, but it continued to sweep onward, reverberating for days across the globe. The atmosphere was ringing like a bell, imperceptible to us but detectable by our instruments.

The Krakatoa explosion registered 172 decibels at 100 miles from the source. This is so astonishingly loud, that it’s inching up against the limits of what we mean by “sound.”

By 1883, weather stations in scores of cities across the world were using barometers to track changes in atmospheric pressure. Six hours and 47 minutes after the Krakatoa explosion, a spike of air pressure was detected in Calcutta. By 8 hours, the pulse reached Mauritius in the west and Melbourne and Sydney in the east. By 12 hours, St. Petersburg noticed the pulse, followed by Vienna, Rome, Paris, Berlin, and Munich. By 18 hours the pulse had reached New York, Washington DC, and Toronto¹.  Amazingly, for as many as 5 days after the explosion, weather stations in 50 cities around the globe observed this unprecedented spike in pressure re-occuring like clockwork, approximately every 34 hours. That is roughly how long it takes sound to travel around the entire planet.

In all, the pressure waves from Krakatoa circled the globe three to four times in each direction. (Each city felt up to seven pressure spikes because they experienced shock waves travelling in opposite directions from the volcano¹.) Meanwhile, tidal stations as far away as India, England, and San Francisco measured a rise in ocean waves simultaneous with this air pulse, an effect that had never been seen before. It was a sound that could no longer be heard but that continued moving around the world, a phenomenon that people nicknamed “the great air-wave.” 

Recently, an incredible home video of a volcanic eruption taken by a couple on vacation in Papua New Guinea started making the rounds on the Internet. If you watch closely, this video gives you a sense for the pressure wave created by a volcano. 

When the volcano erupts, it produces a sudden spike in air pressure; you can actually watch as it moves through the air, condensing water vapor into clouds as it travels. The people taking the video are (fortunately) far enough away that pressure wave takes a while to reach them. When it does finally hit the boat, some 13 seconds after the explosion, you hear what sounds like a huge gunshot accompanied by a sudden blast of air. Multiplying 13 seconds by the speed of sound tells us that the boat was about 4.4 kilometers, or 2.7 miles, away from the volcano. This is somewhat akin to what happened at Krakatoa, except the ‘gunshot’ in that case could be heard not just three but three thousand miles, away, a mind-boggling demonstration of the immense destructive power that nature can unleash.

Aatish Bhatia is a recent physics Ph.D. working at Princeton University to bring science and engineering to a wider audience. He writes the award-winning science blog Empirical Zeal, hosted at Wired, and is on Twitter as @aatishb.

References

[1] Judd, John Wesley, et al. The Eruption of Krakatoa: And Subsequent Phenomena. Trübner & Company, 1888. (a comprehensive data-filled report of the Krakatoa eruption commissioned by the Royal Society, accessible for free under public domain)

[2] Winchester, Simon. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Penguin UK, 2004.

[3] Simkin, Tom, and Richard S. Fiske. Krakatau, 1883, the Volcanic Eruption and Its Effects. Smithsonian Inst Pr, 1983.

Thanks to Nicole Sharp and Will Slaton for helpful discussions about the physics of the Krakatoa explosion.

This article was originally published on September 29, 2014, by Nautilus, and is republished here with permission.

Marcus Aurelius on Embracing Mortality

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Marcus Aurelius on Embracing Mortality and the Key to Living with Presence

“The longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.”

Brain Pickings |

• Maria Popova

“When you realize you are mortal you also realize the tremendousness of the future. You fall in love with a Time you will never perceive,” the great Lebanese poet, painter, and philosopher Etel Adnan wrote in her beautiful meditation on time, self, impermanence, and transcendence. It is a sentiment of tremendous truth and simplicity, yet tremendously difficult for the mind to metabolize — we remain material creatures, spiritually sundered by the fact of our borrowed atoms, which we will each return to the universe, to the stardust that made us, despite our best earthly efforts. Physicist Alan Lightman contemplated this paradox in his lyrical essay on our longing for permanence in a universe of constant change: “It is one of the profound contradictions of human existence that we long for immortality, indeed fervently believe that something must be unchanging and permanent, when all of the evidence in nature argues against us.”

Two millennia earlier, before the very notion of a universe even existed, the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (April 26, 121–March 17, 180) provided uncommonly lucid consolation for this most disquieting paradox of existence in his Meditations ( | free ebook) — the timeless trove of ancient wisdom that gave us his advice on how to motivate yourself to get out of bed each morning, the mental trick for maintaining sanity, and the key to living fully. 

Eons before the modern invention of self-help, the Stoics equipped the human animal with a foundational toolkit for self-refinement, articulating their recipes for mental discipline with uncottoned candor that often borders on brutality — an instructional style they share with the Zen masters, whose teachings are often given in a stern tone that seems berating and downright angry but is animated by absolute well-wishing for the spiritual growth of the pupil.

It is with this mindset that Marcus Aurelius takes up the question of how to embrace our mortality and live with life-expanding presence in Book II of his Meditations, translated here by Gregory Hays:

The speed with which all of them vanish — the objects in the world, and the memory of them in time. And the real nature of the things our senses experience, especially those that entice us with pleasure or frighten us with pain or are loudly trumpeted by pride. To understand those things — how stupid, contemptible, grimy, decaying, and dead they are — that’s what our intellectual powers are for. And to understand what those people really amount to, whose opinions and voices constitute fame. And what dying is — and that if you look at it in the abstract and break down your imaginary ideas of it by logical analysis, you realize that it’s nothing but a process of nature, which only children can be afraid of. (And not only a process of nature but a necessary one.)

Is it ignorance of or contempt for our Constitution

Walter E. Williams | January 19, 2018

Hillary Clinton blamed the Electoral College for her stunning defeat in the 2016 presidential election in her latest memoirs, “What Happened.”

Some have claimed that the Electoral College is one of the most dangerous institutions in American politics.

Why? They say the Electoral College system, as opposed to a simple majority vote, distorts the one-person, one-vote principle of democracy because electoral votes are not distributed according to the population.

To back up their claim, they point out that the Electoral College gives, for example, Wyoming citizens disproportionate weight in a presidential election.

Put another way, Wyoming, a state with a population of about 600,000, has one member in the House of Representatives and two members in the U.S. Senate, which gives the citizens of Wyoming three electoral votes, or one electoral vote per 200,000 people.

California, our most populous state, has more than 39 million people and 55 electoral votes, or approximately one vote per 715,000 people.

Comparatively, individuals in Wyoming have nearly four times the power in the Electoral College as Californians.

Many people whine that using the Electoral College instead of the popular vote and majority rule is undemocratic. I’d say that they are absolutely right. Not deciding who will be the president by majority rule is not democracy.

But the Founding Fathers went to great lengths to ensure that we were a republic and not a democracy. In fact, the word democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or any other of our founding documents.

How about a few quotations expressed by the Founders about democracy?

In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison wanted to prevent rule by majority faction, saying, “Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

John Adams warned in a letter, “Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”

Edmund Randolph said, “That in tracing these evils to their origin, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.”

Then-Chief Justice John Marshall observed, “Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.”

The Founders expressed contempt for the tyranny of majority rule, and throughout our Constitution, they placed impediments to that tyranny. Two houses of Congress pose one obstacle to majority rule. That is, 51 senators can block the wishes of 435 representatives and 49 senators.

The president can veto the wishes of 535 members of Congress. It takes two-thirds of both houses of Congress to override a presidential veto.

To change the Constitution requires not a majority but a two-thirds vote of both houses, and if an amendment is approved, it requires ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.

Finally, the Electoral College is yet another measure that thwarts majority rule. It makes sure that the highly populated states—today, mainly 12 on the east and west coasts, cannot run roughshod over the rest of the nation. That forces a presidential candidate to take into consideration the wishes of the other 38 states.

Those Americans obsessed with rule by popular majorities might want to get rid of the Senate, where states, regardless of population, have two senators.

Should we change representation in the House of Representatives to a system of proportional representation and eliminate the guarantee that each state gets at least one representative?

Currently, seven states with populations of 1 million or fewer have one representative, thus giving them disproportionate influence in Congress.

While we’re at it, should we make all congressional acts by majority rule? When we’re finished with establishing majority rule in Congress, should we then move to change our court system, which requires unanimity in jury decisions, to a simple majority rule?

My question is: Is it ignorance of or contempt for our Constitution that fuels the movement to abolish the Electoral College?

This article has been republished with permission from The Daily Signal.

They brought science to China translated Chinese into books

But should Chinese culture and civilization reject other cultures and civilizations? 

If all nations care only about their own cultures and civilizations, how can cultural integration take place, through exchanges between different cultures?” wrote the priest, identified only as “Father Pietro,” in Dec. 23 article in AsiaNews. 

The priest called on China to acknowledge how much it owes to missionaries. 
“Christianity has not only brought faith to the Chinese people, but also science, philosophy, medicine, mathematics,” he said. 

“Most Catholic missionaries in the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty possessed scientific qualities and were specialists in mathematics. Just think of Matteo Ricci, Nan Huairen (the Belgian Ferdinand Verbiest, 1623-1688), Tang Ruowang (the German Adam Schall von Bell, 1592-1666) and others. They not only brought European science to our country, but even translated Chinese culture into books and brought it to Europe. 

If we had not learned from European civilization, I fear that we Chinese would still have a pigtail and would have neither planes nor cannons,” he added.

Green Kool Aid thinking

William R. Hawkins

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OpinionPolitics - Canada, Politics - U.S., Politics - World, Population ControlTue Dec 24, 2019 - 1:54 pm EST

Elephant in the room: Latest UN climate conference was a joke

  2020 democrat primary, china, climate change, elizabeth warren, environmentalism, global warming, joe biden, united nations

December 24, 2019 (American Thinker) — The leading Democratic candidates for president are still wedded to some form of "Green New Deal" to combat climate change as the progressive heirs of King Canute. As the Los Angeles Times has reported, Joe Biden's $1.7-trillion plan "doesn't go as far as [those of] some of his rivals" like Sen. Bernie Sanders's $16.3-trillion plan, which would require the kind of central planning Sanders embraced on his honeymoon in the Soviet Union. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is on the same leftist track with a plan of "sustained big, structural change across a range of industries and sectors." All these schemes are meant to lower American living standards even more drastically than President Jimmy Carter proposed during his energy crisis, when he told the public to turn down their thermostats and put on sweaters. The Green New Deal would push back American society by generations into a permanent recession, where the only thing that would grow would be the welfare state.

Millennials who have swallowed the Green Kool-Aid while grafted to their smartphones should read a recent essay in The New Republic, the mainstream Left's flagship publication. Titled "Can the Internet Survive Climate Change?" the answer given is "no." Author Kevin Lorzano declares, "The internet is inextricably tied to the coming horrors of the climate crisis. It is both a major force behind that crisis and one of its likely casualties. ... The big, homogenous, world-consuming internet we know today is unsustainable." Yet it is only part of the modern world the Green-Left wishes to destroy.

Biden claims the diplomatic experience to restore the U.S. as the global leader in the climate crusade. Yet the rest of the world is not in the mood to follow anyone into economic stagnation, as evidenced by the U.N. Climate Change Conference, just held in Madrid (December 2–13). This was the 25th annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. It was the usual gathering of government officials, lobbyists, and activists who squander taxpayer and donor funds on five-star hotels and restaurants in major cities while lecturing the rest of humanity on the need to cut their consumption and lifestyles to "save the planet."

It wasn't all gourmet meals and late-night partying. There were also the mind-numbing bureaucratic meetings that compelled the escapist socializing. Consider sitting through the "workplan of the forum on the impact of the implementation of response measures and its Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures."
If one looks merely at the list of events, one might think this was a serious endeavor, but it was not. The leaders of the Green movement declared it a failure because beneath the apocalyptic rhetoric was the realization that life goes on as always.

Executive secretary of U.N. climate change, Patricia Espinosa, described the outcome of the conference:

We need to be clear that the conference did not result in agreement on the guidelines for a much-needed carbon market — an essential part of the toolkit to raise ambition that can harness the potential of the private sector and generate finance for adaptation.

U.N. secretary-general António Guterres was even more blunt, stating, "I am disappointed with the results of #COP25. The international community lost an important opportunity to show increased ambition on mitigation, adaptation & finance to tackle the climate crisis." Yet, he added, "I am more determined than ever to work for 2020 to be the year in which all countries commit to do what science tells us is necessary to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 and a no more than 1.5 degree temperature rise." It is this kind of "the sky is falling" extremism that paints the entire Green movement as dangerous fools and confronts officials with impossible demands to commit national suicide. Even at the U.N., this kind of farce is losing momentum. The high-blown rhetoric is evolving from halting climate change to adapting to it, something our advanced civilization can do more easily than when facing past climate cycles. We are no longer primitives subject to the whims of nature. And as the "threat" is put into perspective, traditional international politics plays out as usual: battling over who is to pay for what and who gets to be a free rider.

Consider China's response to the conference. Song Chen, senior editor at the state-owned China Daily, noted, "Disappointment seems to have become the norm, rather than exception, of the UN Climate Change Conference, and Madrid has been no exception." His aim was to place blame in accordance with Beijing's interests. "That the longest-ever climate change conference in history could deliver possibly the lamest outcome, and that too after deleting almost everything the big countries were opposed to from the final draft ... speaks volumes of the mockery the rich countries have made of the fight against climate change."

For purposes of this column, Song does not consider China a "big country." In U.N. terms, China is still a developing country and thus a "victim" of the big and rich countries of the West. The U.S. is the leading villain: "for good reason, many civil society members and environmental activists blamed the United States for the weak outcome." This is because President Donald Trump took the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris Accord. Song also mentions the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which President George W. Bush refused to join. Beijing liked the Kyoto Protocol for precisely the reason Washington did not; it was based on the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities," which means that all the burdens, restrictions, and costs are to fall on the developed countries while the developing countries remain free to pursue economic growth. This was the foundation of the 1994 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which launched the quarter-century of COP gatherings.

Officially, this dichotomy no longer holds thanks to President Barack Obama. He stormed into a meeting of developing countries at the 2009 Copenhagen COP and demanded that all countries be treated the same; either all face requirements or none does. The developed countries rejected out of hand any mandates, so the developed countries are free of them as well. All nations maintain their sovereign right to formulate their own economic policies. The U.N. can only request that they report what they intend to do. The Chinese intend to do nothing that will slow their growth and have stated that their overall carbon emissions (already the world's highest) will continue to increase until 2030.
While Beijing is a leader in solar and nuclear power, its decisions on energy are guided by those of any rational government: it builds what makes economic sense. That is why Chinese use of coal is continuing to climb. It is cheap and abundant in a country where other sources are expensive or have to be imported. China already uses five times as much coal as does the U.S. and plans to add more coal power (290 gigawatts) than the U.S. currently produces (236 gigawatts).

Beijing has tried to use the climate issue as part of its strategy to shift the world balance of power in its favor by crippling the West as it surges ahead. Enlisting the Green fifth column is part of the effort. In his China Daily column, Song appealed to the Left by adopting their anti-growth theme even though it is anathema to his own government (presumably his bosses understood he was only engaging in propaganda). He argued, "As long as development means continuous expansion of production and consumption, we cannot expect anything to change, because rising consumption doesn't mean ensuring the well-being of the people but pampering to the greed of the haves." This was music to the ears of those activists who have been staging protests at shopping malls to block the purchase of wanton Christmas gifts.

The Left has gone Green because it solves what has always been the fatal flaw in socialism; the inability to produce growth and improve people's lives. Now that the Greens have proclaimed growth to be bad and affluence to be evil, socialism is the perfect model for managing mass poverty in an "equitable" manner. Environmentalism will be pushed regardless of the state of scientific knowledge because socialism requires it. Capitalism will be condemned because it corrupts people with a destructive desire for more. And China and other rising nations will be ready to pick up the pieces if any "big country" in the West falls for this suicidal ideology. With its strong domestic growth program, its globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative, and its daring space exploration agenda, "socialism with Chinese characteristics" is a very different beast. Its attitude is full speed ahead. Can we afford to do any less?

William R. Hawkins is a consultant specializing in international economic and national security issues. He is a former economics professor who has served on the staff of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Published with permission from the American Thinker.

The history of when Christianity faced down evil

By: Jonathon Van Maren

In July of 1683, the Ottomans decided to try again, this time under the ambitious leadership of "Black" Mustafa, the Empire's grand vizier. They arrived to lay siege to the city, demanding surrender. Count Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg, the commander of Vienna's garrison, scorned the ultimatum: "Let them come; I'll fight to the last drop of blood." As the siege dragged on and hunger and exhaustion began to fell the city's inhabitants, it began to look as if the defenders might have to do just that. Frantic pleas for assistance were sent out to the leaders of Christian Europe, calling for men and arms to repel the invaders. The calls were heeded, and a massive relief force made up of soldiers from Saxony, Baden, Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, and Poland began to move towards Vienna.

The battle, a chaotic, bloody affair, began on September 11, 1683 — but there is one moment that stands out, immortalized against the backdrop of an epic struggle between civilizations. As Black Mustafa and the Turks tried desperately to force their way into the city before the relief troops could swing the advantage to the defenders, the Polish King Jan Sobieski emerged from the forests on the hills above the Ottoman attackers. At 6, on his command, an awe-inspiring cavalry charge plunged over the crests of the hills and pounded towards the invaders, a magnificent force of 18,000 horsemen. The Polish king, at the head of 3,000 heavy lancers known to history as the Winged Hussars, led the charge. These knights were named for the wings of birds of prey attached to the backs of their armour, which streamed behind them in the wind and made them resemble a cloud of avenging angels.

The Winged Hussars and the thousands of cavalrymen that followed them smashed into the Ottomans, trampling many of them to death. By the time the horsemen hammered down the hill, many of them were simply riding too fast to stop, and they cut through the enemy troops like a battering-ram of horse, man, and steel.

The charge proved to be the fatal blow to the Ottoman siege, and the battle to save Vienna was won within three hours. With the battle in hand and Vienna saved from the forces of Islam once again, King Jan Sobieski sat down in his tent to write a letter to his adored wife, something he did nearly every day when he was forced to be away from her.

 As Christians are attacked from every side, only Christ the Savior offers us hope and safety - Jonathon van Maren

 Wishing you a happy and Holy New Year from LifeSite

I hope you dance - Lee Ann Womack

This is one of the best songs of inspiration I have heard! 

Lee Ann Womack Lyrics

"I Hope You Dance"

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance, I hope you dance
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin'
Don't let some hell-bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance, I hope you dance
I hope you dance, I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance, I hope you dance
I hope you dance, I hope you dance
I hope you dance, I hope you dance
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)

I Hope You Dance
 "I Hope You Dance" lyrics

Lee Ann Womack

Genealogies

About Genealogies

January 1 2020

Luke 3:23, 'And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.'

MATTHEW 1:1-17; LUKE 3:23-38

Even the genealogies are inspired by God and profitable (2 Tim. 3:16). Matthew traces Jesus' genealogy through Joseph back to Solomon. However, there was a curse placed on one of Solomon's sons named Jechonias (Jer. 22:24-30), which Jesus avoided by being born of a virgin.
Luke mentions Jesus as being the supposed son of Joseph who was the son of Heli. It was actually Mary who was the daughter of Heli. This was done in other Old Testament instances (Num. 27:1-11; 36:12 with Ruth 4:6). Mary's genealogy was also from David but through Nathan, a half brother of Solomon. Thus the lineage was preserved but the curse bypassed.

These genealogies show the infinite wisdom of God in fulfilling His promises despite the corruption of man. In fact these genealogies are full of murderers, adulterers, and every sort of pervert know to man, and yet these same people were used of God, not because of their actions but in spite of them. This means there is still hope for us.

God has never had anyone qualified working for Him yet and we won't be the first.
The history of God's dealings with man reveal that He has always used less than perfect vessels. We can rejoice and take comfort in the fact that God uses us because of our faith and not our holiness.

Fotgiving others is important to you Eternity

Study Bible:

 Matthew 6:15
The Lord's Prayer
…14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.
 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.  
 16 When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.…

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Cross References

Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
 
Matthew 6:14
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.
 
Matthew 18:35
That is how My Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
 
Mark 11:26
But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Treasury of Scripture

But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.