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This book retells Jane Eyre in the voice of a serial killer. No, the novel is not some bizarre mocking of a great classic, but a humorous, well-executed pastiche --literary even—of Charlotte Bronte’s favorite book.
Jane’s first killing is accidental. When Jane was only nine, her annoying first cousin, Edwin, who was thirteen, kissed Jane and then tried to force himself upon her when they were playing outside. She shoved him away, perhaps with more strength than she’d intended. His head slammed on a rock and he died.
It happened during an awful period for Jane. Her French mother had just died from a self-inflicted draught of laudanum, and her Aunt Patience, her cousin’s mother, had decided to send her off to boarding school.
But according to Jane’s mother, whom Jane shared a lowly cottage with, the whole vast estate belonged to Jane and she would inherit it when she came of age. Read more about Jane Steele
We lived in Alaska when this volcano blew spectacularly in 1980. Two months later, we flew from Seattle to the east coast, and the pilot flew over the great mountain, so everyone could get a glimpse at the destruction. Yet, it wasn’t until ten years later that we made the trip to Southern Washington and visited the monument itself.
My husband and children and I stared in horror at the skeleton trees still standing, and at the grey scar that extended for miles down the mountain. In that moment we felt the cataclysmic power of nature. Other than the dead trees, the landscape looked like it could have been on the moon or some barren planet.
As a young neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi had the difficult task of preparing patients and their families for death. As a brain surgeon his patients included everyone from young children with epilepsy, to teens shot in the head during gang violence, to people of all ages suffering from brain tumors.
Then there was the man who spoke only in numbers. He enunciated well, and spoke with a conversational lilt to his words yet no one understood him. The numbers signified nothing, and left him feeling more alone.
Unlike many doctors, Dr. Kalanithi enjoyed the challenge of discussing death with his terminally-ill patients. His undergraduate and graduate studies of philosophy and literature helped him make these talks both meaningful and helpful while always being cognizant of where the patient and family were coming from in their understanding of the patient’s condition.
But then in his last year as a resident when he was the chief neurosurgery resident at Stanford, he woke one day with intense back pain. He had a checkup but nothing serious showed, so he flew to upstate New York for a reunion with dear friends that he had long been anticipating. Read more about When Breath Becomes Air
If you have been feeling that you'd never find another book you could love like The Hunger Games, then have no fear, An Ember in the Ashes is here! Laia is a Scholar, one of the oppressed people living under Martial rule. Her family has been destroyed by the rebellion against the empire and now she's on her own, trying to save her brother from a Martial prison. Elias is a Mask, one of the Empire's most elite soldiers, but he doesn't feel fully connected to the Empire. He plans to desert on the very day he graduates from the military academy, but he's not sure he'll actually be able to go through with it.
Laia's story is one of covert operations, family, and endurance. To save her brother, Laia is placed as a slave in the household of the ruthless leader of the Empire's military academy. Her need to collect information is quickly sidelined behind a greater need to survive. Elias meanwhile is chosen to compete in the Trials, a ruthless test that will leave one of the chosen few standing tall as the new Emperor, one as his second in command, and the others will not survive.
Readers will find themselves quickly pulled into Laia and Elias' story. With two heroes to root for and two separate lives to follow, the narrative is very fast paced. You might think this is just another story of a chosen one, but you'll be surprised where An Ember in the Ashes will take you!
This beautiful novel weaves together two stories from vastly different time periods. One is that of modern Taryn, a single Mom, who works at a high-end fabric store in Manhattan that specializes in matching rare fabrics. The other is Clara’s story about working as a nurse with infectious disease patients on Ellis Island in 1911.
Both women have experienced deep tragedies.Taryn lost her husband in the World Trade Bombings of 2001. A special fabric assignment made her late to a Windows on the World restaurant breakfast with her husband who worked in one of the towers. He died. She survived, thanks to a the scarf that is featured in the title, a beautiful scarf more than a hundred years old that Clara also wore on Ellis Island.
Throughout her life Clara had been spunky. As a teenager she helped her dad in his doctor’s office and unlike her mother and sister, could handle even the bloodiest patrons, and the most horrific sick room scenes. Unlike many young women of her time, she traveled far from home for a job, first working in Manhattan for the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Read more about A Fall of Marigolds
Do you remember what significant event happened on Nov. 30, 1999?
The World Trade Organization protests, which rocked Seattle that day, shocked the world. In many ways, they served as a precursor of what was to come: Wall Street protests, the Occupy Movement, anger against Wall Street, and massive climate change rallies.
This dramatic, fast-paced novel shows you how thie WTO protest felt from the perspectives of protesters, the police and mayor, and one delegate from Sri Lanka whose country’s future hung in the balance.
The protesters were mostly young, and trained in nonviolence. But alas, the cops were ill-prepared and vastly outnumbered and reacted with fear and brutality. The police included a woman from Guatemala who’d worked for the LA Police during the Rodney King fiasco, another who had been severely scarred by the Oklahoma bombing, and Seattle’s Chief of Police himself, a man who preferred no conflict and whose careful planning was torn aside in the torrent of history. Read more about Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist


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Located in the heart of Kansas City, Sunflower Development Group made its name as the “grind it out” developers of historic buildings. The ones who take the tough projects head-on, and aren’t afraid to let a little paperwork get in the way of progress. But Sunflower’s work is so much more than fixing up old buildings.
As the firm expanded its work nationwide, it needed to better articulate its capabilities and prove to owners that partnering with Sunflower is the easiest way to get a job done without any surprises.
As we spoke with the Sunflower team and flipped through pages of their past work, we were inspired by how broadly they viewed their role as developers and more so, restoration specialists. With every building, they looked at how restoring just a little history could enrich the surrounding community for years to come.
And so we were drawn to the idea of time and ways we could illustrate its effects on people and their surroundings. Animated timelines on the homepage imply a sense of remembrance and forward progress. Nodding to Sunflower’s true-to-history restoration process, we married historical and contemporary photography to create striking representations of Sunflower’s work and its impact.
We chose a retro-inspired color palette that, much like a historic building, took on a new life with the right care. As we looked at the site’s photography, which featured plenty of neutral brick and stone, we chose colors that would complement them. Bright blues and warm yellows create intrigue and excitement, while blueprints and concrete textures add depth to every page.
People with big ideas, the kinds that revitalize communities, are searching for talented developers who share their vision. Throughout the site, Sunflower’s messaging evokes friendly expertise and an eagerness to get started. It speaks to its proficiency in the area while elevating the conversation to how that proficiency drives success for clients. Calls to action like, “Tell us what you’re planning” and, “Let’s get building” skip the formalities and create a more active dialogue.
One of the best ways to build a national audience is through content that answers questions and solves problems. We developed a robust content and messaging strategy for Sunflower’s team that gave them the tools and insights they need to produce engaging blogs that position them as experts in all things building development, historic redevelopment and tax credits for construction projects.

domain: design


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Theory of Strategy
This book provides a short and accessible introduction to the theory of strategy, examines the general theory of strategy in accordance with 23 key Principles and explains its nature, functions, and intended consequences.Theory of Strategy makes the radical argument that the familiar structure of strategy's general theory (political ends, strategic ways, military means - and assumptions) holds as sound for security at all times and in all places, of human necessity. Strategy is ever-varying in its character, but not in its nature, which is unchanging.
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domain: library


Porsche is making it easier to try out its cars
Porsche is making it easier for people to get behind the wheel of its cars and SUVs without having to make any serious commitments.
The German automaker, famous for its sports cars, is starting two separate pilot programs in the United States that will enable people to rent Porsches.
One, run by Porsche Cars North America, will operate only in the Atlanta area, home to Porsche’s North American headquarters. Called Porsche Drive, it launched this week and will offer hourly to weekly rentals of brand-new Porsche cars and SUVs.
Fully insured cars will be delivered to customers with a full tank of gas. Prices range from $269 for four hours — the minimum rental allowed — in a Porsche Macan compact SUV or 718 Boxster sports car. A week with a Porsche 911 will cost $2,909.
The other pilot program, available in San Francisco and Los Angeles starting October 8, is operated with the peer-to-peer car rental company Turo. Dozens of customer-owned Porsche cars and SUVs are already available for rent on Turo in those markets. Turo will select the best-rated owners, or “hosts,” and those owners will receive special training on their cars and in customer service at Porsche’s Experience Center in Los Angeles.
“These are people who know a lot about Porsche and are Porsche evangelists,” Turo CEO Andre Haddad said.
He’s one of them. Haddad has his own Porsche 911 listed for rent on the site for $200 a day. Turo will create a page on its website listing all the specially selected Porsche Hosts in one place.
Porsche is the fourth-most searched for term on the Turo website, Haddad said. In the case of this pilot program, called Turo Host, the cars won’t necessarily be brand-new Porsches. Some could be older or even vintage models.
“Our market research shows that consumers want options across a spectrum from access to ownership,” Klaus Zellmer, president and CEO of Porsche Cars North America, said in a statement. “The Porsche Drive and Porsche Host pilots are exciting, non-traditional ways to let customers choose how they get behind the wheel of a Porsche.”
Porsche is also one of several luxury automakers test marketing a “car subscription” service. Customers using the Porsche Passport service, also currently only available in the Atlanta area, pay a few thousand dollars a month which enables them to swap among various Porsche models at any time they like.
Those wanting to try a Porsche car for the shortest time possible can visit one of Porsche Experience Centers in Atlanta or Los Angeles and spend 90 minutes driving one on a specially designed test track.
Porsche is not the first automaker to get into the business of renting its own cars. For instance, General Motors has its own car-sharing subsidiary called Maven which offers short term rentals, for as little as a few hours, of various GM models including Chevrolets and Cadillacs. Audi operates Silvercar which rents only silver-colored Audi cars.
If these Porsche rental programs prove popular one or both of them could be rolled out nationally.


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I am loath to admit it, but I haven’t been very productive since returning from the UnCon two weeks ago.
That’s partly due to the settling-in process required after traveling. You know, laundry, stocking the pantry, making sure bills are paid, and so on.
But like most writers I know, I’m bad about protecting my writing time. I am my own worst enemy, filling that time with errands, chores, or extra time at work.
I think some of my bad habits are driven by guilt. Since my writing isn’t paying much (if any) income, it’s sometimes hard to justify the hours spent for the income received. (You can learn more about writers’ income from the Authors Guild’s 2018 Author Income Survey.)
But I also think a large part of my inability to prioritize my writing is culturally driven.
The Internet makes it easy for people to avoid paying creatives for our work. I know people who boast about how they watch every Hollywood blockbuster online thanks to Chinese pirates. I know people who seek out ways to get their music online without paying. I know people who will only read the free or $0.99 books on their Kindles because they’re unwilling to pay more than that for a book. (And don’t get me started on the fake books we now know Amazon.com is shipping.)
Hell, even I am guilty of failing to pay creatives for their time. I want to play games on my phone but balk at the idea of paying the developers to buy the app. (That’s a bit of hypocrisy Jen called me on recently. And she’s right that I’m hypocritical. I’ll work to change that.)
I have the good fortune to know actors, musicians, writers, photographers, and others doing creative work. Across the board, all of them are struggling to make a living wage as artists.
In the arts, very few artists become as financially successful as Lin-Manuel Miranda, James Patterson, or Prince. Most artists work on their craft as a sideline. And that, I think, makes it easier for those enjoying art (I’m deliberately avoiding the word “consumer” here) to devalue the work.
I’m not sure how to fix the problem, but I think we’re reaching a crisis point. We talk about retail and food service workers who don’t earn living wages from their jobs, and I think we need to bring artistic workers into that discussion.
(Photo by Fiona Smallwood on Unsplash)

domain: artistic


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On March 22, the innovation forum of “metaverse ignites education” and the unveiling ceremony of Huike metaverse education experience center, sponsored by China education innovation school enterprise alliance, undertaken by Huike group and co organized by class bar, Shangdong Digital Valley and metaverse education laboratory, were held.
At the event, Huike group announced that from now on, it will solicit 20 colleges and universities nationwide to jointly build a college metaverse education pilot, and held a launching ceremony at the event site with five of the first batch of pilot colleges and Universities: Northern University of technology, architecture and urban culture research center of the central Academy of fine arts, Beijing Vocational College of Finance and trade, Beijing Vocational College of economic management and Beijing Vocational College of politics and law.
Metaverse education experience center is jointly built by Huike, Kaike bar and Shangdong digital valley
Yue Xiwei, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Huike group, introduced that metaverse education experience center was jointly built by Huike, Kaike bar and Shangdong digital valley. He pointed out that Houchang village where Shangdong Digital Valley is located, as a highland of the Internet industry, is the forefront of national scientific and technological innovation. The establishment of an experience center here is conducive to Huike to better realize the high-quality connection between industry and education and promote the integration of industry and education.
Yue Xiwei, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Huike group
When it comes to the reasons for the establishment of metaverse education experience center, Yue Xiwei said: “now when we look at metaverse, we seem to be able to make it clear, but we don’t seem to make it clear. At this time, Huike will build a platform for friends in the industry and education to promote the implementation of the most cutting-edge technology, so that everyone can ‘see clearly’ first and better explore its application in the educational scene.”
He believes that the emergence of a new technology will have a dual impact on education. The first important impact is that the development of this new industry urgently needs talents who understand this field. “In the past 12 years, the core things Huike has done have been carried out around this.” Another important influence is how to apply these technologies to promote or change education and improve the efficiency of learning and teaching, which is also the starting point of the design of the experience center.
It is reported that, relying on the 5g technology, we have invested more than 4 million square meters to realize the integration of metaverse live broadcast and art experience, with a total of more than 4 million square meters. Based on teaching and artificial intelligence, Internet of things, human-computer interaction, cloud computing and other technologies, combined with digital twin technology and vr virtual reality technology, the experience center aims to provide intuitive experience for people who want to personally understand and feel the application of cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality and VR simulation in the field of education.
Using metaverse related technology to serve colleges and universities for digital talent training
Dr. Chen Ying, partner of Huike group, Chief Strategic Officer and President of Huike Research Institute, introduced the implementation and application of metaverse in the field of education. He shared the six “I” perspectives of Huike under “metaverse + education” – emphasizing immersion, interactivity, imagination, the connotation of education, the sublimation of knowledge and the analysis of intelligence.
Dr. Chen Ying, partner of Huike group, Chief Strategic Officer and President of Huike Research Institute
Chen Ying introduced Huike’s metaverse education solution, and took the cooperation cases of digital twin campus of Shanghai University of science and technology, XR laboratory construction of Northeast University and Jinan Vocational College, virtual simulation experiment of media image Defamiliarization in Zhejiang, virtual simulation experiment of air and space defense radar of Beihang as an example to show how Huike uses metaverse related technologies to serve colleges and universities for digital talent training.
Specifically, in the fields of mechanical disassembly, automobile maintenance and brain structure display, Huike’s metaverse education solution can restore the structure of solid model through three-dimensional modeling; In the fields of psychological stress response and virtual speech training, the physiological state of students in different situations can be analyzed through external skin electrical tester and other equipment; In radar principle analysis, television media, civil engineering and other disciplines, virtual simulation experiments that meet the requirements of gender equality can be constructed.
“The integration of digital intelligence improves the quality and governance mode of higher education, and the integration of production and education cultivates students’ compound ability and digital literacy. This is the ‘two wheel drive’ mode of Huike,” Chen Ying said. Huike not only does education, but uses “two wheels” to drive the overall improvement of education in the whole ecology. “Only by applying our better technical model to the educational scene can we meet the educational needs of such a large volume.”
Chen Ying believes that this is a rapidly rising market, from cooperating with colleges and universities to building virtual simulation gold courses to jointly building metaverse education pilot projects. He told mustard heap that colleges and universities have a strong driving force to seek cooperation in this field. Huike has cooperated with many schools in the past to do Mu classes and virtual simulation classes, and the co construction of metaverse education is actually a natural upgrading process.
“Originally, Huike only does it, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. In metaverse education, the scope of courses we do is more extensive. It will no longer be limited to engineering, but can be done in various disciplines and categories such as medicine, sports and art.” Chen Ying revealed.
With regard to the application of metaverse in vocational education, Chen Ying mentioned that because students of vocational education often need to contact with production tools, “metaverse + education” can further promote their skill acquisition in the immersion environment, and the application space is very large.
“There are always some industries that will take the lead in embracing digitization and metaverse, and education is one of them.”
At the forum, expert representatives from education and industry jointly discussed the development trend of metaverse cutting-edge technology, and displayed the scientific and technological achievements of “metaverse + education” and its application in different scenarios.
Professor Shenyang, executive director of the new media research center of the school of journalism of Tsinghua University, explained the development, expanded application and future value of metaverse. He introduced the three properties of metaverse: 1 Time and space expansion. When students sit in the classroom, they need to expand a lot of information; 2. Man machine integration is the integration of virtual human, natural human and robot; 3. Economic value-added. After the content produced in the process of education is materialized, it will be digital products.
Dr. Dai Ruoxin, co-founder and CTO of Beijing nuoyiteng Technology Co., Ltd., pointed out that from the past 30 or 40 years to the present and future decades, digitization continues to occur and is irreversible. When facing these new concepts of metaverse, what we need to do is to actively embrace it, understand it, and spread it to more people through educational power.
“Metaverse is the end of digitization, but it is not achieved overnight. It is based on the physical world. It needs to go through demand stratification and industrial division, and can be assembled into a complete grand plan like a puzzle. Its landing should be bound with the demand, and those who do education will provide a complete solution for education.” He said that one of the first industries to embrace digital education is metaverse.
Yu Jinyong, Secretary General of metaverse education laboratory and partner of Zhongguancun education investment management, said that the most potential direction of metaverse application may be in the field of education. In metaverse, the learning effect will be greatly improved through immersion and interaction to stimulate interest. He believes that the learning education in metaverse may be in the middle of online education and offline education. “Metaverse in the future is a big classroom.”

domain: news


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For this morning, let me draw your attention, for the time we have in God’s Word, back to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Looking again at the passage which has been our focus over a number of weeks. Obviously, in studying through 2 Timothy we have come across this passage, verses 15 to 17, in the context of the third chapter. The first week that we looked at it, we discussed primarily its intent with regard to Paul writing Timothy. That is the primary significance of it in its context. And then, feeling that one look at that text didn’t really do justice to it, we took another week and examined the whole idea indicated in verse 16 of all Scripture being inspired by God because that is a tremendously impactful statement that goes way beyond any specific instruction Paul could give to Timothy. The fact that Scripture is inspired is of monumental consequence and so, we dug a little more deeply into the matter of inspiration.
And as I was planning to kind of move on in 2 Timothy, I was rereading the epistle and I came back to this same section. And in reading it I realized that there was one further tremendously important issue here that hadn’t been addressed that I needed to deal with and that has to do with what I like to call the work of the Word, the work of the Word. We talked about the fact that it was inspired but we must also focus on its work. And you will notice in verse 15 that it says that the sacred writings are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Initially the work of the Word is salvation. Then in verse 16, it is useful. That is inspired Scripture is useful, for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness with the idea that the end product may be a man of God adequate and equipped for every good work. Now a simple reading of those verses indicates to us five elements of the work of the Word: salvation, teaching, reproof, correction, training and righteousness. Those are the things which the Word does, which the Scripture produces. They’re not new to me, they’re not new to most of you. They are new to perhaps some of you.
And as I thought about it I thought, “Well, it’s pretty basic but it’s also pretty important.” And let me say by way of general introduction that the distinguishing characteristic, I hope, of my own ministry and of Grace Community Church, is a very, very strong commitment to the authority of the Word of God. We are definitely a church committed to God’s Word. We endeavor to teach God’s Word, to preach God’s Word, to implement God’s Word, to live God’s Word, to proclaim God’s Word, to exalt God’s Word. It is the focal point of everything that we do. When God speaks, we listen.
I think so many times of Revelation 2 and 3, if you have ears to hear then hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So we have always been a church that listens to the Word of God, that is committed to the Word of God, that is submissive to the Word of God. And the focal point of our ministry has been the Scripture. There are many things that a church can do. There are many focuses. There are many sort of themes that a church can camp on. But for us for all these years it has been the Word of God. Our church, our personal lives are dominated by the Word of God. Week in and week out, we teach the Bible. Here in the services we preach it expositorily, that is explaining its meaning. We go through Scripture after Scripture after Scripture.
The reason for that is because of the work of the Word. Because we understand what it does, that’s why we give it the main attention. Let me just remind you of a very important promise with regard to this. Isaiah 55:10 and 11. You don’t need to look it up. Just listen. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be which goes forth from My mouth. It shall not return to Me empty or void, without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I send it.”
In other words, God says when I send My Word it always does its work. It always does its work. It never comes back empty. Just like rain and snow produces what grows, My Word produces My will. The Bible is God’s messenger. It accomplishes His will. It accomplishes His purpose. The Word of God is depicted in Psalm 147 as a swift messenger. It runs to do God’s work. It runs to accomplish God’s goals.
You might look just at Psalm 147 for a moment. There are several verses there that really are very vivid. Verse 15, “He sends forth His command to the earth,” – that’s verse 15 – “He sends forth His command to the earth, His Word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments. Who can stand before His cold? He sends forth His Word and melts them. He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow. He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.” And here is this sort of intertwined analogy as God sends the cold and frost and the sun and all the natural elements to produce what He wants to produce, so He sends His Word. And the Word is analogous to that.
It goes out to produce the ends that God has intended for it. That’s a tremendous confidence that we have who teach the Word of God, who articulate the Word of God, to know that it always accomplishes what God wants it to do, never comes back empty, always produces, always produces, like rain and snow and all the other things that God sends with production in mind. The Word is productive.
It is prolific and it accomplishes its purpose. “Every word out of God’s mouth is bread,” it says in Deuteronomy 8:3. It feeds somebody. It nourishes somebody. It makes somebody grow. It accomplishes something. And so we want to ask the question then, if it does accomplish something, what does it accomplish? What is the work of the Word? What is the purpose of the Word? And let’s look at these five things, we’ll look at two of them this morning, just briefly giving you what may for most of you be review, and then the other three next Lord’s day.
The first one is that the Word produces salvation. You’ll notice that very familiar verse that we looked at in chapter 3 verse 15. It says that “The sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation” – which comes, of course – “through faith in Christ Jesus. The thing that he says there is the Word, the sacred writings – referring to Scripture – have, primarily in that particular verse, reference to the Old Testament. But nonetheless Scripture produces salvation. Scripture produces salvation. It makes you wise unto salvation. It is the instrument of salvation.
The practical implications of this are obvious. Before we look at those, though, let’s see if we can’t reinforce that truth a little bit by looking namely at the testimony of Jesus Himself. Turn in your Bible to John’s gospel. And in John’s gospel, we have the continual teaching of Jesus about the power of His word and the Word of God. But in chapter 5 in verse 24 we read this, the words of Jesus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” That is a tremendous verse. That is a verse that – that binds up the essence of the gospel. Believing in God, the God who sent Christ and hearing the Word brings eternal life and delivers one from judgment, passing out of death into life.
And note, please, the key to it all, verse 24, “He who hears My Word.” The Word is the agency. The Word is that which begets new life. In John chapter 6, I draw your attention to a couple of verses toward the end of the chapter. And Jesus again teaching in this familiar section where He speaks on the bread of life. But in verse 63 He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing.” Then this, “The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life and if they haven’t effected that in you,” – verse 64 implies – “that’s because some of you don’t believe.” So, the Word mixed with faith produces life.
Chapter 12 of John, and there are other texts you could look at but these are highlights. Chapter 12 in verse 49, Jesus says, “I did not speak on My own initiative,” – even Jesus operated under delegated authority and operated by speaking only that which was the Word of God. He said – “My Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment what to say and what to speak and I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak I speak just as the Father has told Me.” And again Jesus is articulating the reality that the Word is that which produces eternal life. The Word brings life.
The sum of it all comes in that great watershed verse, 31 of chapter 20 in John’s gospel, which really gives us the reason for the whole book, the whole gospel. “These have been written – these have been written,” – says John – “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name.” And again, eternal life comes by believing the written Word, the revealed Word, the Word of God. Scripture then is the source of that truth which brings salvation.
Look again further into the New Testament, the tenth chapter of Romans. And we find that the apostle Paul was committed to the same truth. In Romans chapter 10, a familiar verse, 17 says, “So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.” Or some manuscripts, “the Word of God.” I think, preferably, the Word of Christ, the New American has it that way. But the point is, one way or the other it’s the Word of God or the Word of Christ, which are one and the same that produces salvation. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. That’s why you have to have preachers. That’s why you have to have those who will go out and speak the truth.
It says in verse 13, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how are they going to call on Him in whom they have not believed and how they going to believe in whom they have not heard and how will they hear without a preacher and how will they preach unless they are sent? And even when they are sent the implication is they must hear the Word of Christ. So it is again emphasized that the Scripture is the source. In Ephesians chapter 5, that great section on marriage as compared to the church, verse 25 says, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.” Christ has cleansed His church, saved His church by the washing of water with the Word. The Word again the agency.
And Paul writing to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 refers to the work – “the Word of God which performs its work in you who believe.” The Word works. Now salvation occurs when you have a ready heart that is open to believe, mixed with the revelation of God. The Word of God in a ready heart, that’s the issue. James refers to the same dynamic in James 1:18. He says, “He brought us forth, He begot us, He redeemed us, He saved us by the Word of truth,” by the Word of truth. So, the Scripture, the Word of God, is the source of salvation. That’s why Philippians 2:16 calls it the “Word of life.” It is characterized as that which gives life.
Psalm 19:7, “The law of the Lord is perfect,” – what’s the rest of the verse? – “converting the soul.” It has the power to convert. And I think back to Nehemiah, a tremendous illustration of this. Look with me for a moment to the eighth chapter of Nehemiah, it’s a few books to the left of Psalms. And in Nehemiah chapter 8 we have the introduction of a revival. In Nehemiah chapter 8, it begins – it was the beginning of a real revival. And I believe there were many people who were saved in the true sense of Old Testament salvation at this revival.
“And all the people gathered as one man at the gate which was in front of the Water Gate” – the square which was in front of the Water Gate – “they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses.” Three little words. Bring the book, really keyed the whole thing. And he “brought the law before the assembly of men, women and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it before the square which was in front of the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of men and women, those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the book of the law.”
They stood there and listened to it being read hour after hour after hour. There was a wooden podium, verse 4, set up “for that purpose.” And Ezra, verse 5, “opened the book in the sight of all the people, standing up above all the people; and he opened it, all the people stood up. He blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!’ Lifting up their hands; they bowed low, worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”
Verse 8 says, that as “they read from the book, from the law of God, they translated to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” It had to go from Hebrew into Aramaic, which was their common language, and it had to be explained to them. And so they were reading and explaining the Word. The people’s response was amazing. It says at the end of verse 9, they “were weeping when they heard the words of the law.” They were grieved over their sin. They were struck because of the dearth of the law of God in their hearing.
The end result of all of this was the people really drew their hearts back to God. This reading went on. At the end of verse 18 it says “They celebrated the feast for seven days and they read from the book of the law,” – the first part of the verse says – “daily from the first day to the last day. Then the people began to praise God in chapter 9. They were praising and lifting up adoration to the God who had revealed Himself in Scripture. They were getting their hearts right. Down in verse 28 of chapter 10 after that long list of people who signed the document, it says that they “were joining together, making a commitment, taking a curse,” – verse 29 – “making an oath to walk in God’s law, to keep and observe all the commandments of God our Lord and His ordinance and His statutes.
The net result was the people made a commitment to God. And I believe there was salvation that period of time, through that seven‑day feast, there was a great movement of God and many were saved. And it was a direct result of simply standing and reading and translating, explaining the Scripture. It has the power to convert the soul, the power to save.
Look at another illustration, taken from the New Testament. Namely the eighth chapter of Luke in which our Lord teaches a familiar parable which makes the same major point. Jesus teaching here about the parable of the soils and the sower and the seed. Verse 5 says of Luke 8, “The sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, was trampled underfoot and the birds of the air ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky soil, as soon as it grew up it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into good soil, grew up, produced a crop a hundred times as great.” And He said, “You better listen to the things I’m saying.”
Then in verse 9 they asked Him what it was He was saying. He’s – he’s explaining, starting in verse 10, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, to the rest it is in parables in order that they seeing may not see and hearing they may not understand.” In other words, He says I’m going to explain it to you because obviously you belong to God. To them it will remain a riddle. The explanation then comes in verse 11. “In the parable the seed is the Word of God.” That which produces new life in good soil is the Word of God. That’s the point.
If the soil isn’t right, you’re not going to get the product. If it’s hard soil like the soil on the road, it says those beside the road are those who have heard, the devil comes, takes away the Word from their hearts so they may not believe and be saved. And those on the rocky soil are those who when they have received the Word, and receive it with joy and they have no firm root. They believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
And the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity. The Word of God will fall into places where the soil is not ready. Its full of weeds, full of rocks or just hard. But, verse 15, when the seed falls into good soil, those are the ones who have heard the Word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance.
So what you have here is the Word of God placed in a readied heart, a prepared heart produces salvation. The practical implications of this are obvious. The heart and soul of our evangelistic ministry must be the Word of God. People will sometimes say, “Well, if you teach the Bible all the time when do you do your evangelism?” Beloved, the Bible is the greatest tool of evangelism. How could we ever come to the point where we would even question such?
When Jesus was asked by a lawyer, in Luke 10:25 and 26, he said, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to that man, “What is written in the law and how does it read to you?” Go to the Scripture. Go to the Scripture. You can go back to the Old Testament, the sacred writings and they are able to make you wise unto salvation which, of course, has come in the fullness of time through that which Christ has accomplished. What does the Scripture say? Jesus said search the Scriptures for they are they which speak of Me. And then one very, very explicit text. First Peter 1. Turn to it for a moment. Verse 23, “You have been born again,” – it says – “not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is” – referring to the seed – “through the living and abiding Word of God.”
The seed is the Word of God again. It is that seed placed in good soil that produces salvation. So if we want to be effective in evangelism, we want to teach God’s Word. If we want to be effective in reaching our friends, we want to give them God’s Word. Instead of making it very complicated, let me make it as simple as I possibly can for you. If you know somebody who is not saved, first thing to do is give them a what? A Bible. Bible, remember that? Don’t get too complex. Don’t get too carried away with feeling inadequate because you can’t explain every theological issue. I mean, you don’t need to know all the answers to all the questions, the Bible will be enough.
I talked to a young lady a couple of days ago and she said, “You know, there’s so many things I don’t understand.” Comes out of a drug-oriented background. “So many things I don’t understand.” But she said, “One thing I do understand.” She said, “The other night I read the chapter in the Bible called Ephesians.” That’s the way she said it. “I read the chapter in the Bible called Ephesians. Boy, you can’t read that without knowing what the truth is.” I said, “Well, that’s very interesting.” She said, “It’s pretty clear there.” And I really believe, of course, the Lord has worked on her heart. She has professed faith in Christ and all of a sudden stuff is becoming alive to her but it came through the reading of God’s Word. It’s not as complex as we want to make it.
And, of course, focusing on that, when you give someone a Bible, encourage them to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and see if they can survive that. If they can survive that, the soil isn’t ready, there’s nothing wrong with the seed. The soil isn’t ready. God hasn’t prepared the soil. But the seed is there. So we need to be committed to that. He says you have been born again through the living and abiding Word of God. And verse 25 says, “This is the Word which was preached to you.” He illustrates it in that passage with a quote out of Isaiah chapter 40, comparing the Word of God to the passing flesh. The Word abides, it lives forever, it does its work, it produces life.
This could be illustrated, I think, quite simply in a – a rather brief but beautiful account of a woman’s conversion in Acts 16. Lydia was her name. And it tells about her in verse 14, just very briefly. “A certain woman,” – Acts 16:14 – “named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics.” This is a business woman, sold purple fabrics for a living. “She was a worshiper of God.” That is to say she was upright in the sense of seeking the true God and seeking to worship the true God but had not yet been exposed to the gospel of Christ. She was listening, and then this: “And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized,” – so forth and so on. I love that. The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. That’s the essence of salvation. You speak the truth of God’s Word and let the Lord open the heart.
Theoretically, it wouldn’t do a bit of God if the Lord was opening the heart and there wasn’t any truth there. It doesn’t do any good, also, for us to speak truth if the heart is not open, except for the fact that we have discharged our duty. It cannot bring salvation unless the heart is opened. So our task is to spread the Word, spread the seed, preach the truth, give out God’s Word and God’s part is sovereignly, graciously to open the heart. The implications again, I just reiterate to you, are clear.
Now, in evangelism we want to give people God’s Word. It’s that simple, that basic. I mean, this is – this is primer kind of stuff, very basic. But it helps me as – as we sort of stop here after nearly 20 years of ministry to just go all the way back and say, “Why are we doing this?” Because this is what we are to do. There isn’t anything more. Somebody might say, “Well, you know, we’ve been doing this a long time. Can’t we do something different?” No. “I mean, we have been teaching the Bible a long time, we’ve been having expository teaching, we’ve been going over this biblical – can’t we do something else?” No. There never will be anything else because this is what we’re mandated to do, this is that which brings salvation.
There’s a second thing. Let’s look at verse 16 of 2 Timothy 3 and that list that is there indicates four things in addition to salvation that is the work of the word. First is teaching, then reproof, then correction, and training in righteousness. We’ll save the last three for next time and look just at the one that the Scripture says is teaching or doctrine. “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for doctrine, teaching.” This function obviously takes place after salvation has occurred.
Why? First Corinthians 2:14, “The natural man understandeth not the things of God, they are foolishness to him because they are spiritually discerned and he’s spiritually dead, but we who are saved,” – he says in verse 16 – “have the mind of Christ.” We have the Holy Spirit, 1 John tells us, chapter 2. We have no need to be taught by men because we have an anointing from God who teaches us all things. So when you become a believer you receive what theologians have chosen to call “the ministry of illumination by the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit takes up residence in your heart and begins to illuminate the Word to you and you begin to be able to learn what it teaches.
Now, the term “teaching” here does not describe a process, it describes content. It describes a body of truth, that which is taught, didaskalia, that which is taught. The Scripture then is to deposit with you, truth. It gives you a body of truth by which you are to think and act. That’s basically it. The Scripture is a body of truth which is to control your thinking and your acting. And so as you study the Word of God you accumulate that body of truth. And the more of that you accumulate, the more circumscribed to God’s standard your behavior, your conduct becomes.
But it starts with content. People – and I’ve said this for years – people cannot do what they do not know. They cannot function on principles they do not understand. They cannot live out non‑existent truth. If you don’t know it, you can’t do it. Oh, maybe once in a while you’ll stumble across it like the blind pig who finds a slop now and then. But generally speaking, you’re only going to be able to do what you understand. And so primarily the Scripture then is there to provide for the saved person a repository of truth, principles for life and thought.
In fact, we have noted a couple of times in our study of 1 and 2 Timothy that Paul says to Timothy, “Guard that deposit which is entrusted to you,” that body of truth. Paul looked at apostolic doctrine, at that which God had taught him and which God had ordained that he pass on as a body of truth to be given. He says in Acts chapter 20, “I have not failed to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. I taught you night and day with tears. I taught you publicly, I taught you from house to house.” He preached every – every weekend in the – in the synagogue. Always, always giving out truth in order that people might have a deposit of truth which would govern their life.
And that truth is the same as God’s Word. It says in John 17:17 that Jesus said, “Thy Word is truth,” to the Father. “Thy Word is truth.” I’ve always had that kind of a – I don’t know, that’s almost an insatiable hunger in my own heart to understand God’s Word. It just I have this hunger to understand it, I want to know what it means by what it says. I can read what it says, I want to know what it means by what it says. And that appetite more than anything else in ministry drives me to study. It compels me. It’s the desire to know what God says.
I want that body of truth. I don’t want any holes. I don’t want anything left out. Many people through the years of my ministry have come to me and said, “Well, if I would have known that I never would have done this. Well, if I knew that the Bible taught that, I wouldn’t have done this. I would – if I would have known that I never would have been in this mess.” That’s right. You want to know what the Scripture says. In fact, back in Hosea, do you remember what Hosea’s indictment was as God spoke to the prophet in chapter 4? He said, “My people are destroyed for lack of” – What? – “knowledge.” Not lack of zeal, not lack of emotion, not lack of anything but knowledge. They didn’t know. And what they didn’t know they couldn’t live.
That’s why you need to be in a place that teaches the Word of God and you need to learn the Word of God. Systematic faithful proclamation, declaration of God’s truth is foundational to life. We must know God’s truth. And so the Scripture gives it to us. It is useful for doctrine. It gives us our framework. In Exodus 24, I was just thinking where Moses came, recounted to the people all the word – words of the Lord and all the ordinances and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do.” That’s the attitude. Moses gave them all the words of the Lord, they said all the words of the Lord we’ll do.
They didn’t live up to it but it was a nice thought. It ought to be our commitment too. We want to know all that God said and all that God said we’ll do. Why do you think in the great commission we are told to “go and make disciples of all men, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have” – What? – “commanded you?” We have the tremendous responsibility of giving the deposit of truth. And that takes a long time. I’ve been asked a number of times why I stay so long in one church. Well, I haven’t covered all the ground yet. There’s a lot to cover. And I know sometimes we think we’ve learned it all, but that’s not the case.
And yet, on the other hand, there’s a sense in which we know the principles of God’s Word which are illustrated a myriad of ways throughout Scripture, so we are accumulating and understanding that can guard us and guide us through life and seeing it repeated in different circumstances and different settings through Scripture. Men must know God’s truth. Look at Matthew for a moment, chapter 22, just to stretch your thinking one more time in this regard.
Matthew 22 in verse 16 may be one of the most wonderful commendations of Christ ever given by unbelievers. The Pharisees came and tried to catch Jesus in His words, always trying to get Him so they could eliminate Him. They sent their disciples along with Herodians, strange bedfellows. They said, “Teacher,” – I love this – “we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth and defer to no one for You are not partial to any.”
I guess, secretly in my own heart, that would be what I would desire as a – sometime, when I go to the grave somebody might say about me, “You are truthful, you teach the way of God in truth and defer to no one for you’re not partial to any.” What integrity. What absolute and utter integrity. Jesus taught truthfully the way of God in truth and deferred to no one and was not partial to anyone. He couldn’t be intimidated, He was committed to truth. What a commendation. He taught God’s truth because that’s what men needed to know. It wasn’t always popular.
Someone said to me the other day, “Well, you know, I was at a place and a certain person from your church came and spoke. And every said – everything he said was true. But he shouldn’t have said it because it offended some people.” Well see, that’s a question of, I suppose, you want to be cautious. There’s no sense in literally blasting away at people in all circumstances. But that’s – that’s a little bit of the spirit of the age which says, “Don’t worry about speaking the truth, be much more concerned with not offending anybody.” And so you defer.
It’s a lot more exciting to just speak the truth and see what happens. You can walk away and say, “Well, it was – how did it go?” Oftentimes you get into a deal, like “Oh, it was nice, everybody was real happy, it was good, they enjoyed it.” That’s – maybe that’s not the right response. Maybe you should go away and, “How was it?” “Oh, it was good. There was a riot. There was a riot after I was done. There was a big fight, three people got shot, four people knocked down the building and it was great, it was just wonderful. They were just so upset about the gospel.” I mean, maybe that’s a different approach. I’m not advocating that at this particular point for every situation, but whatever happened to that kind of approach?
Jesus said – they said of Jesus that He taught always the truth, the way of God in truth, deferred to no one and wasn’t partial to anybody. Boy, He didn’t defer to anyone, thinking He might offend them with what He said and He wasn’t partial to anyone. Picked no sides. Paul had that same spirit. Paul says in Acts 20 essentially the same thing. I mean, I’m just going to teach exactly what Christ gives me to teach and I’m going to go and teach it wherever I need to go and teach it. And I’m not going to worry about what happens to me, and I’m not going to worry about my own life because I don’t count it dear to myself.
See, we – we want to be committed to the truth, people, to building that body of truth that becomes the garrison that sets the – the walls up for our behavior, for the way we live life. We must be committed to truth. We must be committed to building that strength. In 2 Chronicles 34, it talks about Josiah. The king stood in his place, made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord, to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of the covenant written in this book. Boy, what a devoted man...what a devoted man.
Let me tell you what he said again. To keep the commandments, first of all he said to walk before the Lord or after the Lord, to keep the commandments, the testimonies, the statutes with all his heart, with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant written in this book. I mean, that’s where it starts in Christian living. That’s what God is calling, a people who commit – commit themselves to the Word of God. Now, what is the practical implication of this? First of all, you have to know it and then you have to what? Live it. But it starts with knowing it.
I have an old Bible at home and I have it open to this first chapter of Joshua, it sits right in the entrance to our home. When you walk in, it’s the first thing you see and it’s open to these verses, Joshua 1:7 and 8, “Only be strong and very courageous, be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, My servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. Be careful to do all that is written in it.”
Every time you walk in or out of our house, I look at that, I’m reminded that I am responsible before God to do all that is written in that book, to do all that is written in that book. One, I have to know what’s written in that book so that I can do it. So I’m committed to the fact that Scripture is the source of doctrine, it’s the source of teaching. There’s no other source. There is no other place to go, folks, it’s all here in God’s book. There are other helpful books that comment on this, that expand, elucidate, apply this, but this is it.
Let me give it to you in form of an illustration, Ephesians chapter 6. And we’ll just pull it together with this one, Ephesians chapter 6. Verse 17 and here in the armor of the Christian we have a vivid illustration, I think, of the matter of the Word of God and its place in the believer’s life. Being armed here with our Christian armor to fight against Satan and his – his demons, described for us in verse 12, he gives all these elements of armor. Basically they are all defensive, a helmet to protect us, a breastplate to protect us, a shield to protect us, our feet shod with the preparation that will protect us, allow us to hold our ground, and so forth. And finally you come to an offensive weapon in verse 17 which is the sword of the Spirit.
Now, just to help you understand this, the sword is the word machaira in the Greek. The word rhomphaia has reference to a large sword, a big sword, three, four feet long even. And that’s not the word used here. This is a dagger, somewhere around six inches or so, a small little precise weapon that had to be used in very, very precise manner in order to deliver a fatal blow. So the Word of God, first of all, is to be used precisely. It is the sword of the Spirit, not the rhomphaia of the Spirit to be flailed around indiscriminately. You don’t bash demons in the head with your huge Bible. The sword has to be used with tremendous discrimination, tremendous astuteness, tremendous care, tremendous skill.
So he says the sword of the Spirit and then he tells you what it is. It’s the Word of God. And instead of the word logos for Word, he uses the Greek term rhēma, which basically means a specific statement, a specific statement. It seems to be that he is trying to emphasize here that you use the Scripture with precision, you use the specific statement like a small dagger thrust into a vital area with great dexterity. It – it isn’t the sense that I have the sword of the Spirit because I own a Bible. You could own a lot of Bibles and not have the sword of the Spirit unless you know how to use those specific statements of Scripture which apply at specific points of temptation with precision.
That’s the issue. The sword of the Spirit is a precision weapon and it is used with precision to be applied to given situations with precision. And that is why Paul said to Timothy, study or be diligent to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You must understand it. You must know how to cut it straight. You must know how to properly interpret and apply it so that you can use the sword.
I see myself as a teacher of God’s Word, endeavoring to give you the sword at every point. You may – you may know the specific statement of God about a lot of things, but maybe you don’t know the specific statement of God about a lot of other things. So if you’re attacked in that area, you’ve got no ability to use that weapon because you don’t know that specific statement. The challenge in learning God’s Word is to master those truths which give you the deposit so that you have the sword at every point and wherever Satan may attack you, you can pull that thing out and use it with precision because you know precisely what the Word of God has to say.
The master illustration of this comes, I believe, in the temptation of Jesus. Do you realize that when Jesus was tempted on those three occasions by the devil, that every time the devil tempted Him He answered with what? Scripture. He quoted Deuteronomy, a passage out of Deuteronomy. Jesus didn’t have to do that. Jesus did not have to quote Scripture. He could have said something and it would have become Scripture. He did not have to quote Scripture.
Why did He do that? He was giving us a what? A pattern, He was giving us an example. He was giving us a means to understand how to deal with temptation. It was Jesus’ spiritual secret, if you will, to borrow a somewhat popular thought. It was letting us into the heart of Christ and how He dealt with the enemy as the pattern for how we are to deal. And in each case, when the temptation came, Jesus quoted a verse that was a direct rebuttal to that temptation. He had the sword. And He could use that thing with precision to strike a fatal blow.
And, in essence, that’s what we are to do. And that’s what happens when the Word of God is imbibed and taken in. And when you have the sword you can use the sword and you can use it with precision in any given situation. You become potentially a victor if you apply that which you have. So the Word of God, the Scripture, is useful. It’s useful for salvation. It’s useful for doctrine.
And God wants to bring that Word into our lives as believers constantly, systematically, repeatedly, so that the Word of Christ will dwell in us what? Richly, abundantly, superabundantly, so that we’re literally dominated, saturated, filled with the Word, so that our mind is renewed with the Word in order that we may possess the sword, in order that we may think and act in accord with God’s truth.
What is the work of the Word? To save, to teach and it always accomplishes its purpose when it’s mixed with a believing receiving heart. And I trust yours is that kind of heart. You can’t stop here because we don’t always respond to the Word the way we ought to. So the Word also has a ministry of reproof and a ministry of correction and a ministry of instruction which involves chastening. We’ll get into that next time. Let’s bow together in prayer.
We thank You for that truth in Deuteronomy 8:3, that every Word of God is bread. Father, we thank You for this Word which is indeed bread, which feeds us. Lord, we want to say thank You that the Word came to us and was mixed with faith because You prepared our hearts by Your sovereign grace. We want to thank You that You plowed the soil up, that You allowed Your Holy Spirit, yea, You commissioned Your Holy Spirit to do a convicting work in our heart and we were convicted of sin and righteousness and judgment.
The soil was made ready and when the Word came, we believed. We thank You for that life-giving Word. And, Father, we thank You, too, for the deposit of truth, that doctrine which guards our thinking and our acting. We thank You for the fact that You’ve given us not only the book but You’ve given us the indwelling teacher, the illuminator, the very author of the book. What a thought that we should not only possess the book but have living in us the one who wrote it.
Oh, Lord, no wonder we don’t need to trust men but we have an anointing from the Thee to teach us all things. Help us, Lord, who have been saved by the power of the Word to be built up by its power, to be nourished in the words of faith, good teaching. Help us to allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly so that we have the outflow of all those wonderful things described in Colossians 3.
Help us to have that mind renewed. Help us to be able to think on things pure and lovely and just and good, things in the Word. May we respond to the injunction of Joshua 1 to never ever let our minds depart from Your Word. May we like the people of old, like Josiah, make a covenant to walk after the Lord, to keep His law and His testimonies and His statutes all the days of our life.
Thank You that You’ve given us the content to govern life. You’ve given us the content to defeat Satan. You’ve given us all we need. We thank You that the Word will accomplish its work in us who receive it. For Jesus sake. Amen
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Hello and welcome to the Colin Dexter universe where the planets of Lewis, Endeavour, Morse, Hathaway, Strange, Debryn, Griffin and Hobson align to create a pleasurable and contented galaxy. Wow, I’m getting florid in my old age.
Here we are at the fifth part of this thirteen part series of posts. This particular post marks the end of the first series of Endeavour and allowed us a glimpse into Endeavour Morse’s family background.
For those who haven’t read the first four parts of this particular series of posts here are some links. For part one click here. For part two click here. For part three click here. For part four click here. And for a picture of me naked click here. Eack link will open in a new window.
As before the first connection should be the man who devised and wrote all thirteen of the Endeavour episodes and that is Russell Lewis. Here below is another reminder of what else he has written within the Morse universe.
Lewis (TV Series) (screenplay – 4 episodes, 2010 – 2012) (story – 1 episode, 2006)
– Fearful Symmetry (2012) … (screenplay)
– Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things (2011) … (screenplay)
– Falling Darkness (2010) … (screenplay)
– The Dead of Winter (2010) … (screenplay)
– Reputation (2006) … (story)
He also wrote the Morse episode, ‘The Way Through the Woods’. (One of my favourite Morse episodes).
Apart from the usual suspects, James Strange and Max DeBryn we do have two characters who appeared in another series, primarily, the original Morse.
Firstly we have Endeavour’s sister Joyce played in this episode by Sonya Cassidy.
The character of Joyce also appeared in the Morse series episode, ‘Cherubim and Seraphim’ (series 6, episode 5). Then she was played by Sorcha Cusack.
Also appearing in this episode of Endeavour was the character of Gwen Morse, Endeavour’s stepmother. In this episode she was played by Lynda Rooke.
Gwen Morse’s character also appeared in the Morse episode, ‘Cherubim, and Seraphim’. In that episode she was played by Edwina Day.
To the best of my knowledge those were the only two characters with a connection to a previous series.
Actors who appeared in the Endeavour Series 1, Episode 4 ‘Home’ and/or Morse or Lewis.
In this section we have six actors who have appeared in either a Lewis or Morse episode. Firstly we have Paul Venables. Paul played Professor Coke Norris in the Endeavour episode.
Paul Venables as Prof. Coke Norris.
Paul Venables also appeared in an episode of Lewis, ‘Music to Die for’ (Series 2, Episode 2) as Hansi Kriel.
Paul Venables as Hansi Kriel.
Our second recurring actor is Louis Dylan. In the Endeavour episode she played Judy Vallens.
Louis Dylan as Judy Vallens.
Louis Dylan also appeared in the Lewis episode, ‘Allegory of Love’ (Series 3, Episode 1) playing the character Melanie Harding.
Louis Dylan as Melanie Harding.
Just as an interesting aside. Melanie Harding was Australian and the Harding family who were portrayed in the Morse episode, ‘Promised Land’ were living in Australia. The Hardings had three children, Karen, who was about 11, and the twins whose names were never mentioned. The twins were around 5 years old. The Morse episode, ‘Promised Land’ was set in 1991 and the Lewis episode was set in 2009. This would make one of the female twins around 23 by my reckoning. Melanie Harding could have been in that age range. Co-incidence? I don’t think so.
Anyway, on to the third actor who is Lloyd McGuire. In the Endeavour episode he played Charlie Ayers.
Lloyd McGuire as Charlie Ayers.
Lloyd McGuire played a Prison Officer called Clough in the Morse episode ‘The Day of the Devil’ (Series 7, Episode 2).
Lloyd McGuire as Clough.
Next up we have Richard Hawley. He played the slimy Morris Cubitt in the Endeavour episode.
Richard Hawley as Morris Cubitt.
In the Morse episdoe, ‘The Secret of Bay 5b’ (Series 3, Episode 4), Richard played an orderly.
Richard Hawley as an orderly with the lovely Amanda Hillwood in the background.
The fifth actor is Lynda Rooke who played Gwen Morse in this episode as mentioned above. Lynda also played Joyce Gaitteau in the final Lewis episode, ‘What Lies Tangled’ (Series 9, Episode 3).
Lynda Rooke as Joyce Gaitteau.
Last but not least is Sonya Cassidy who as already mentioned played Joyce Morse in the Endeavour episode. In the Lewis episode, ‘Quality of Mercy (Series 3, Episode 2), she played Alison. Now I had a little difficulty in pinpointing who Alison was as her name never seemed to be mentioned but I think this is Sonya Cassidy in the picture below.
At the very start of the episode we hear Faure’s Requiem: VII In Paradisum. This piece is of course very significant in the world of Morse as the same piece of music was playing when Morse collapsed to the ground with a heart attack in the episode, ‘The Remorseful Day’.
Endeavour mentions that in Professor Coke Norris’s briefcase there were essays on the Sophocles play, ‘The Trachiniae’. Sophocles has turned up before in the Morse universe, specifically in the very first episode of the original series, ‘The Dead of Jericho’. In that episode the play mentioned was ‘Oedipus the King’.
John Thaw as Morse reading Anne Staveley’s copy of ‘Oedipus the King’ in the ‘The Dead of Jericho’.
As all fans of John Thaw know he walked with a limp, an accident that occured in his youth. In this episode of Endeavour he is is hit by a bullet. When visiting the doctor he is told that he will probably develop a limp sometime later in life. A very nice touch that gives viewers of the original series a reason for Endeavour Morse’s limp.
Colin as a professor at 3 minutes and 3 seconds.
Well I think that concludes this post. As always I hope you enjoy it and feel free to let me know if I have omitted something.


text: When the last nuns from the Old Beliviers' monastery in Wojnowo (Eckerdorf) died, there appered an opportunity to inspect the objects remainig there. Particular attention should be paid to volumes, which are systematically photografed and analyzed by the lecturers from the University of Warmia and Mazury. Amongst them we can find 'Sinodik'. This article constitutes an attempt to define the place and approximate time of its publication. On the basis of the volume, the authoress established that the volume was published in the illegal Grebnev's printing house in Dziergacze (Dergachi), probably between 1900 and 1905.


text:
Making choices about what to welcome into your life....
By Shari Levine
Hair up? Hair down?
Shirt in? Shirt Out?
Walk to school? Take the bus?
Eat breakfast? Skip it?
You make a lot of choices EVERY day. Some of your choices have a big impact on your life, some don't. You've probably already heard way-more-than-you-want-to about what you should or shouldn't do. Every girl works hard to discover who she is and what she wants. How can a girl make healthy choices and STILL have fun? Check out Girl Zone's guide to making choices:
Consider all of your options -- look carefully and completely at ALL that is available to you. You wouldn't buy the first pair of shoes that you see, so don't get close to the first guy that asks you to!
Decide what you want -- think about what you really want, not what OTHER people want for you, or what they are choosing for themselves. You probably don't let other people choose which TV shows you watch so don't let them choose whether you should put drugs or toxins into your body!
Learn from your mistakes -- if you tried something that you did not like, DON'T do it again. If you ate a vegetable that made you gag, you wouldn't touch it again, so why smoke a second cigarette if the first one made you choke?
List the consequences of your choice the little ones AND the big ones, from getting a stomach ache from eating too many french fries or passing out after drinking too much alcohol. You know if you don't study that you won't do well on a test, so you gotta realize that if you aren't prepared, you could end up pregnant or terminally ill!
Be aware of the reasons why you are making choices -- is it because you are feeling pressure from friends or family, or is it something YOU truly want? You wouldn't let your friends pressure you into singing a solo in a musical if you didn't think you'd be comfortable doing it, so why let them pressure you into decorating your body in ways that really aren't what you want?
Is someone pressuring you to move in a little closer, baby?
When you choose to be intimate with another person, your decision can affect you for the rest of your life. Make sure that if you DO choose to be intimate that you use the proper protection to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. But even before you consider the consequences, remember to check out if intimacy is what YOU want. Are you emotionally ready to take this step? Are you choosing to do it because YOU want to? And remember if something makes you uncomfortable you can ALWAYS choose to NOT do it again!
Here today -- gone tomorrow. Oops, I mean, here today, still here tomorrow!
Body piercing and tattoos are all the rage in many areas. But decorating the human body is not a new thing. From the beginning of time, people in all cultures have used paint, jewelry, and other adornments to decorate their bodies. If you get a piercing or a tattoo you are choosing to make a permanent change to your skin. Making this choice may seem like the right thing to do now, but it might be something you regret someday. Think carefully before you make changes to your body that are permanent. Remember to ask yourself why you are doing it. Don't do it for others. It's your body!
You are what you eat.
Knowing what you should eat doesn't necessarily mean that you make healthy food choices. Several times each day you make choices about what to eat or drink. Junk food is really tempting, especially when you watch television advertisements that say Don't just sit there, eat something, and then tell you to eat Chi Chi's chips and salsa.
Actually what we often refer to as junk foods are not always lacking nutritional value. For example, pizza has a lot of nutritional value including calcium and protein from the cheese, carbohydrates from the crust, and vitamins from the tomato sauce. However, Doritos have little if any nutritional value. Yet, they taste good and they are a quick and easy snack to eat while you are on the go.
Picture yourself at a snack bar trying to choose between a banana or a bag of Doritos. They both cost the same, and they are both easy to eat while walking to your next class. How do you choose? What are you in the mood for? A sweet, smooth banana or crunchy, spicy chips? Think about how you will feel after eating each of these foods. After eating the banana your body will have energy and feel satisfied. After eating the Doritos, you will have sticky fingers, bad breath, and empty calories.
Not only are cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol unhealthy for your body, but a teen who uses them is breaking the law. Why do so many teens choose to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, and take drugs? Maybe because certain drugs can provide temporary stress relief and a brief escape from negative feelings. But, the positive effects of drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol are only temporary.
When you choose to put a drug into your body, you could be endangering your health. Before you take drugs, consider the consequences of your actions, some of which are felt immediately (as in a hangover) and some long-term (as in an addiction). Remember it's YOUR body. Don't let anyone else choose for you, AND always make sure that you know why you are making a choice and what the results of that choice will be.
Hang in there, girl; life is FULL of choices. Just keep yourself aware of what YOU want and of what the facts tell you, and you'll be fine. You might make mistakes, but remember, if it tastes bad, don't eat it again AND if it's not what YOU want, don't do it!

domain: psychology


Transmission of Force Through
CHARACTERISTICS OF FLUIDS
The vast difference in the manner in which force is transmitted
through confined liquids, as compared with solid bodies, is due to
the physical characteristics of fluids -- namely, shape and
Liquids have no definite shape; they readily and
instantly conform to the form of the container.
Because of this
characteristic the entire body of confined fluid tends to move away
from the point of the initial force in all directions until stopped
by something solid such as the walls of the container.
That is, they can only be compressed by
approximately 1 percent of their volume. Because liquids lack their
own shape and are incompressible, an applied force transmitted
through a body of liquid confined in a rigid container results in no
more compression than if it were transmitted through solid metal.


text:
On the demographic front, we face a fast growing global population and a greater proportion of that population inhabiting cities. UN research shows that by 2050, the world’s population will have grown by another 2.3 billion and 66% of the world’s population will inhabit cities. In addition to this, 80% of the world’s agriculture appropriate land is already in use and more extreme weather patterns are putting pressure on conventional farming.
Consumer habits and attitudes also bring their own unique challenges. Increasingly, we expect our favorite foods to be available all year and at an affordable price. Strawberries are no longer just a summertime treat! Yet, despite this, environmentally conscious consumers also worry about “food miles” – the distance food has travelled to reach your plate. They also worry about the resources used up by food production, as well as the use of pesticides. How can these competing priorities be resolved?
So we need to grow more food to provide for the growing demands of people in urban areas, but there is less space available for agriculture. Technology provides the answer to help solve these challenges and a part of the answer is light. Philips’ knowledge of plants and light can help usher in a new era of City Farming, where food is grown locally in limited spaces without natural daylight.
Philips has led research into horticultural lighting technology for decades and the new Philips GrowWise City Farming Research Centre will continue this important work. The focus of current research activity is to optimize produce already grown in indoor environments called City Farms, such as salad and lettuce, as well as developing new methods for growing staple foods such as potatoes. The new found ability to grow carbohydrate containing foods in or close to urban areas could help to tackle global food shortages.
Philips GrowWise City Farming - Local food on a global scale
While Philips Horticultural Lighting has been supporting traditional horticultural food producers that utilize greenhouses for decades, City Farming is a very recent innovation. City Farming is a sustainable, reliable and scalable indoor vertical farming system that produces high-quality vegetables, herbs and fruits all year round - in all environments. It bundles a unique combination of LED light solutions, dedicated growth recipes for specific crops, careful climate monitoring and regulating equipment plus all the necessary engineering, logistics and support required for constant, uninterrupted production.
Philips GrowWise CityFarming allows growers - who could be city farmers, supermarkets, food companies, or even restaurants - to produce food, on an ongoing basis, extremely close to where it will be consumed. This leads to a vast reduction in transport -related damage and perishing of delicate products like lettuce, herbs and strawberries.
Being a closed system, Philips GrowWise City Farming isn’t affected by storms, temperature extremes, drought, seasons or - of vital importance - insects. Pesticides are therefore no longer necessary. In addition to LED lighting, only an absolute minimum of fertilizer and water (both to grow and wash the crops) is required. The result is increased yields, reduced operating costs and maximum nutrition and taste.
Because of the carefully-controlled nature of the growing cycle, new possibilities emerge too; for example boosting levels of nutrients and vitamins in crops, improving taste and even developing new varieties. City Farming has the potential to drive fundamental changes in the way fresh food is grown, brought to market and enjoyed by consumers.
Philips technology is already supporting City Farms: Deliscious in the Netherlands and Green Sense Farms in the USA. (see appendix)
Light Recipes help you get the best crops
Philips is committed to helping growers get the maximum benefit from their LED lighting systems, by developing tailor-made lighting recipes which ensure that each product is getting the right light for its needs. A Philips lighting recipe includes: the type and number of LEDs required; where to place them to deliver the optimal lighting conditions; the amount of coverage for the plant type and greenhouse set-up; how bright the lights should be; and when they should be switched on and off.
Philips works closely with scientists and leading academic institutions to understand lighting’s impact on plant physiology. This type of research, along with working directly with growers, allows Philips to not only understand a grower’s needs, but also how LED lighting can go even further.
The evolution of horticultural lighting
Philips has been offering dedicated horticultural lighting solutions to professional plant growers since 1936 and continues to do so. For years artificial lighting has supplemented natural daylight in greenhouses and, therefore, extended the growing season.
Over the years, research has shown that plants’ sensitivity to light is very different to humans. Light can have many colors, which are defined by the so-called wavelength of the light – from infrared light with a relatively large wavelength, to ultraviolet with a much smaller wavelength. Plants only make use of certain wavelengths, some of which are non-visible to humans, and different plants respond to different sets of wavelengths. Traditional lamps did not provide ideal conditions for growing, but LED lighting can amplify the impact of horticultural lighting. Philips is the global leader in LED lighting and the company is using its leadership to bring leading LED solutions to traditional greenhouse growers, as well as the emerging City Farm market.
LED Lighting - The future of fresh food production
With the advent of LED technology Philips is able to meet a grower’s unique needs. LEDs are highly efficient, produce light in very pure colors (i.e., with a narrow spread of wavelengths) and are available in varieties across the visible and invisible spectrum from far infrared to ultraviolet.
LEDs allow us to optimize lighting solutions to bring even greater value for growers – whether that is higher yields, lower running costs or more control over when plants are ready to go to market. By choosing different types of LEDs, you can very specifically define the spectrum of light plants receive – so there are no wasted wavelengths. Also, LEDs run cool, so they can be placed very close to the plants, ensuring complete illumination of the plant with no shadowing and no danger of scorching. They are also completely controllable – you can turn them on and off, and change the brightness as you wish.
APPENDIX – City Farming – the context | Download PDF

domain: agronomy


text:
Ukrainian govt officially closed Kerch and Sevastopol fish ports until constitutional system of Ukraine restored in Crimea
Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers temporarily closed Kerch and Sevastopol maritime fishing ports within the water areas used by eponymous state-run enterprises until the constitutional system of Ukraine is restored on the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol city.
Read also: Water shortage in Crimea to make irrigated land infertile in three years
According to cabinet resolution No. 263 of April 6, 2016, the ports are temporarily closed, as it is impossible to service ships and passengers, carry out cargo, transport and shipping works with observation of navigation safety, requirements of international agreements signed by Ukraine and environment protection.
Read also: Crimea's Tauric Chersonesos become one of the most dangerous museums for visiting
The State Fishing Industry Agency is ordered to take measures to inform international organizations on the closure of the two ports.

domain: politics


The oxidative degradation of two volatile organic compounds, i.e. toluene (fossil fuel based VOC) and limonene (biogenic VOC), has been studied. A hybrid pulsed power corona reactor with adjustable energy density has been utilized for degradation of ppm level target compounds in large air flows. The observed oxidation product range features an energy density-dependent spectrum of oxygen-functional hydrocarbons, which has been qualitatively discussed on the basis of literature studies. Typically, observed stable oxidation products for both target compounds are the biocompatible carboxylic acids acetic and formic acid. Measured degradation G-values are 23 nmol J-1 at 74% conversion of 70 ppm toluene and 181 nmol J-1 at 81% conversion of 10 ppm limonene.