June 14, 2014

From Gary... Bible Reading June 14

Bible Reading  
June 14

The World English Bible


June 13
1 Samuel 19, 20

1Sa 19:1 Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David.
1Sa 19:2 Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeks to kill you: now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself:
1Sa 19:3 and I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you; and if I see anything, I will tell you.
1Sa 19:4 Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, Don't let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you:
1Sa 19:5 for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and Yahweh worked a great victory for all Israel: you saw it, and rejoiced; why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?
1Sa 19:6 Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan: and Saul swore, As Yahweh lives, he shall not be put to death.
1Sa 19:7 Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as before.
1Sa 19:8 There was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.
1Sa 19:9 An evil spirit from Yahweh was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand.
1Sa 19:10 Saul sought to strike David even to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he struck the spear into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.
1Sa 19:11 Saul sent messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning: and Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, If you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be slain.
1Sa 19:12 So Michal let David down through the window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.
1Sa 19:13 Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes.
1Sa 19:14 When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.
1Sa 19:15 Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.
1Sa 19:16 When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' hair at its head.
1Sa 19:17 Saul said to Michal, Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped? Michal answered Saul, He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill you?
1Sa 19:18 Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth.
1Sa 19:19 It was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.
1Sa 19:20 Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
1Sa 19:21 When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.
1Sa 19:22 Then went he also to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? One said, Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.
1Sa 19:23 He went there to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
1Sa 19:24 He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

1Sa 20:1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity?" and "What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?"
1Sa 20:2 He said to him, "Far from it; you shall not die: behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so."
1Sa 20:3 David swore moreover, and said, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, 'Don't let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved:' but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death."
1Sa 20:4 Then said Jonathan to David, "Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you."
1Sa 20:5 David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening.
1Sa 20:6 If your father miss me at all, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.'
1Sa 20:7 If he says, 'It is well;' your servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, then know that evil is determined by him.
1Sa 20:8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you: but if there be in me iniquity, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?"
1Sa 20:9 Jonathan said, "Far be it from you; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn't I tell you that?"
1Sa 20:10 Then said David to Jonathan, "Who shall tell me if perchance your father answers you roughly?"
1Sa 20:11 Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." They both went out into the field.
1Sa 20:12 Jonathan said to David, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, be witness: when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there be good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you?
1Sa 20:13 Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don't disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace: and Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father.
1Sa 20:14 You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness of Yahweh, that I not die;
1Sa 20:15 but also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off the enemies of David everyone from the surface of the earth."
1Sa 20:16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Yahweh will require it at the hand of David's enemies.
1Sa 20:17 Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
1Sa 20:18 Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon: and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.
1Sa 20:19 When you have stayed three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where you did hide yourself when the business was in hand, and shall remain by the stone Ezel.
1Sa 20:20 I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark.
1Sa 20:21 Behold, I will send the boy, saying, Go, find the arrows. If I tell the boy, Behold, the arrows are on this side of you; take them, and come; for there is peace to you and no hurt, as Yahweh lives.
1Sa 20:22 But if I say thus to the boy, Behold, the arrows are beyond you; go your way; for Yahweh has sent you away.
1Sa 20:23 As touching the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.
1Sa 20:24 So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat food.
1Sa 20:25 The king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by Saul's side: but David's place was empty.
1Sa 20:26 Nevertheless Saul didn't say anything that day: for he thought, Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.
1Sa 20:27 It happened on the next day after the new moon, which was the second day, that David's place was empty: and Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why doesn't the son of Jesse come to meat, neither yesterday, nor today?
1Sa 20:28 Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem:
1Sa 20:29 and he said, Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he has commanded me to be there: and now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away, I pray you, and see my brothers. Therefore he is not come to the king's table.
1Sa 20:30 Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?
1Sa 20:31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.
1Sa 20:32 Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?"
1Sa 20:33 Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
1Sa 20:34 So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.
1Sa 20:35 It happened in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.
1Sa 20:36 He said to his boy, Run, find now the arrows which I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
1Sa 20:37 When the boy was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, Isn't the arrow beyond you?
1Sa 20:38 Jonathan cried after the boy, Go fast! Hurry! Don't delay! Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.
1Sa 20:39 But the boy didn't know anything: only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
1Sa 20:40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, Go, carry them to the city.
1Sa 20:41 As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of a place toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.
1Sa 20:42 Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of Yahweh, saying, Yahweh shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever. He arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.




June 14
1 Samuel 21, 22

1Sa 21:1 Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no man with you?
1Sa 21:2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you: and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.
1Sa 21:3 Now therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.
1Sa 21:4 The priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.
1Sa 21:5 David answered the priest, and said to him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey; how much more then today shall their vessels be holy?
1Sa 21:6 So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.
1Sa 21:7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.
1Sa 21:8 David said to Ahimelech, Isn't there here under your hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.
1Sa 21:9 The priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here. David said, There is none like that; give it to me.
1Sa 21:10 David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
1Sa 21:11 The servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?' "
1Sa 21:12 David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
1Sa 21:13 He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.
1Sa 21:14 Then said Achish to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me?
1Sa 21:15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?
1Sa 22:1 David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam: and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.
1Sa 22:2 Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.
1Sa 22:3 David went there to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother come forth, and be with you, until I know what God will do for me.
1Sa 22:4 He brought them before the king of Moab: and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.
1Sa 22:5 The prophet Gad said to David, Don't stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.
1Sa 22:6 Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him: now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.
1Sa 22:7 Saul said to his servants who stood about him, Hear now, you Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,
1Sa 22:8 that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
1Sa 22:9 Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.
1Sa 22:10 He inquired of Yahweh for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.
1Sa 22:11 Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.
1Sa 22:12 Saul said, Hear now, you son of Ahitub. He answered, Here I am, my lord.
1Sa 22:13 Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?
1Sa 22:14 Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house?
1Sa 22:15 Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more.
1Sa 22:16 The king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house.
1Sa 22:17 The king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh.
1Sa 22:18 The king said to Doeg, Turn and attack the priests! Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod.
1Sa 22:19 Nob, the city of the priests, struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
1Sa 22:20 One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.
1Sa 22:21 Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh's priests.
1Sa 22:22 David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house.
1Sa 22:23 Stay with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life: for with me you shall be in safeguard.

 
Jun. 13, 14
John 15

Joh 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.
Joh 15:2 Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
Joh 15:3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Joh 15:4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If a man doesn't remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
Joh 15:8 "In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.
Joh 15:9 Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.
Joh 15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love.
Joh 15:11 I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Joh 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
Joh 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Joh 15:14 You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
Joh 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.
Joh 15:16 You didn't choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Joh 15:17 "I command these things to you, that you may love one another.
Joh 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his lord.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.
Joh 15:21 But all these things will they do to you for my name's sake, because they don't know him who sent me.
Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Joh 15:23 He who hates me, hates my Father also.
Joh 15:24 If I hadn't done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn't have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father.
Joh 15:25 But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.'
Joh 15:26 "When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
Joh 15:27 You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

From Mark Copeland... A True Son In The Faith (Acts 16:1-5)

                          "THE BOOK OF ACTS"

                   A True Son In The Faith (16:1-5)

INTRODUCTION

1. Paul's second missionary began when he and Silas left Antioch of
   Syria...
   a. Commended by the brethren to the grace of God - Ac 15:40
   b. Passing through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches - Ac 15:41

2. Coming to Derbe and then Lystra, they added a third companion to their
   party...
   a. A young disciple named Timothy - Ac 16:1-3
   b. Who would assist Paul for decades at personal cost and great risk

[Paul called Timothy "a true son in the faith" (1Ti 1:2).  I like to
think of him as "The Daniel Of The New Testament". What was so remarkable
about him?  Let's first review what we know about...]

I. TIMOTHY - BEFORE HIS SELECTION BY PAUL

   A. PERSONAL INFO...
      1. His name means "honoring God" (he would prove true to his name!)
      2. He was a native of Lystra - Ac 16:1-2
      3. His mother was a Jewish, his father a Greek - Ac 16:1
         a. There is no mention of a synagogue in Lystra
         b. The mixed marriage might suggest a shallow faith earlier in
            her life
         c. Which might also explain why Timothy had not been circumcised
         d. Though he was taught the Old Testament Scriptures - 2Ti 3:15

   B. DISCIPLESHIP INFO...
      1. His mother (Eunice) and grandmother (Lois) had become believers
         - Ac 16:1; 2Ti 1:5
      2. Timothy was likely converted by Paul on his 1st missionary
         journey
         a. Paul had preached the gospel in Lystra and left disciples
            there - Ac 14:6-7,20
         b. Paul considered himself a spiritual "father" of those he
            taught - e.g., 1Co 4:17
         c. He certainly thought of Timothy as his "son" in the faith
            - 1Ti 1:2; 2Ti 1:2
      3. Timothy may have been as young as 13 when converted
         a. Paul's first missionary journey was around 47-48 AD
         b. Yet 16 years later (64 AD) he was still a "youth" - 1Ti 4:12
      4. As a new disciple, he may have witnessed Paul's stoning at
         Lystra - Ac 14:19-20
      5. He was familiar with Paul's persecutions at Antioch, Iconium, 
         Lystra - 2Ti 3:10-11
      6. As a disciple he was well-spoken of by brethren at Lystra and 
         Iconium - Ac 16:2


[It was this very young disciple that Paul wanted to join him and Silas.
Imagine the courage required on Timothy's part to accept, knowing the 
tribulations Paul had already faced!  Imagine the faith required by 
Timothy's mother and grandmother to let him go with Paul! But now let's
review what we know of...]

II. TIMOTHY - AFTER HIS SELECTION BY PAUL

   A. BEFORE LEAVING LYSTRA...
      1. Paul had Timothy circumcised because of the Jews
         a. Jews in the region knew Timothy's father was a Greek - Ac 16:3
         b. Remember Paul's evangelistic method:  Jews first, then
            Gentiles - Ro 1:16
         c. His custom was to visit synagogues first - Ac 17:1-3
         d. As a Jew (reckoned as such because of his mother), being
            uncircumcised would hinder Timothy's effectiveness among Jews
         e. As a matter of expediency, Paul had no qualms with Jewish
            Christians keeping elements of the Law - cf. 1Co 9:19-23; Ac 18:18,21; 21:17-26
         f. When made an issue of salvation, Paul would refuse 
            circumcision - Ac 15:1-2; Ga 2:1-5
      2. Consider what circumcision required of Timothy
         a. For young and older men, it was a serious and painful
            procedure - Gen 34:24-25
         b. For Timothy, his first act of service for Paul involved
            bloodshed!
      3. Timothy may have also been commissioned with spiritual gifts
         at this time
         a. By the laying on of hands by the elders of the church - 1Ti 4:14
         b. Together with the laying on of Paul's hands - 2Ti 1:6

   B. AFTER LEAVING LYSTRA...
      1. Timothy fulfilled special and often dangerous missions for Paul
         a. Staying behind with Silas in troubled Berea - Ac 17:13-14
         b. Sent to learn of the brethren in afflicted Thessalonica - 1Th 3:1-8
         c. Leaving Ephesus to go to Macedonia with Erastus - Ac 19:22
         d. Sent to Corinth to remind them of Paul's ways in Christ - 1Co 4:17
         e. Sent to persecuted Philippi to learn of their condition - Php 2:19
         f. Left at Ephesus to deal with any who might be trouble - 1Ti 1:3-4,18-19
      2. Timothy truly became Paul's "fellow laborer in the gospel of
         Christ"
         a. Paul considered no one as like-minded as him - Php 2:19-22
         b. He had Timothy join him as co-authors of 6 epistles - 2Co, 
            Ph, Co, 1Th, 2Th, Phile
         c. Timothy received 2 epistles from Paul - 1Ti, 2Ti
      3. As Paul faced death, he asked Timothy to come (which involved 
         risk) - 2Ti 4:9 
      4. Timothy himself was imprisoned at some point, but later released
         - He 13:23

CONCLUSION

1. Summarizing what we learned about Timothy, he was...
   a. Blessed by the faithful upbringing of his grandmother Lois and
      mother Eunice
   b. Dedicated as a disciple to serve Jesus and His apostle Paul
   c. Faithful in carrying out tasks assigned to him
   d. Courageous in the face of persecution, risking imprisonment and
      death
   e. Humble enough to accept a "second string" position, the perfect
      "preacher's helper"

2. Like Daniel, Timothy is a wonderful example for serving God in 
   youth...
   a. "in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity"
      - 1Ti 4:12
   b. "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself" - Dan 1:8

For all Christians, Timothy demonstrates what it means to be "A True
Son In The Faith".  

As sons of God through faith and baptism into Christ (Ga 3:26-27), let
the example of Timothy in the Scriptures inspire us to be more faithful
and fruitful in our service to Christ, no matter the cost...!
 

by Eric Lyons, M.Min. ... Scientists, Soldiers, and Fish Scales



http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=12&article=2313

Scientists, Soldiers, and Fish Scales

by  Eric Lyons, M.Min.

Operating on a grant from the U.S. Army, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing better body armor for soldiers. Surprisingly, the inspiration for their work comes from a foot-long African fish known as Polypterus senegalus.
According to scientists, the fish’s “armor” is able to protect it from others of its own species, as well as other carnivores. Its overlapping armored scales “first dissipate the energy of a strike, then protect against any penetrations to the soft tissues below and finally limit any damage to the shield to the immediate area surrounding the assault” (Crane, 2008). What makes the fish’s armor so effective? Aside from its four layers of overlapping scales, “researchers believe the dermal scales’ different composite materials [including bone and dentine—EL] and the geometry and thickness of various layers” all contribute to the armor’s strength and effectiveness in protecting the animal (Crane, 2008). Dr. Christine Ortiz, lead MIT researcher on the Polypterus project, stated: “Such fundamental knowledge holds great potential for the development of improved biologically inspired structural materials” (Bryner, 2008).
Brilliant scientists in the 21st century are spending an untold amount of time, energy, and money studying the scale structure of a fish, in hopes of designing new and improved armor applications for U.S. soldiers and military vehicles. Scientists admit that the “design” of the overlapping scale layers is “fascinating, complex and multiscale” (Crane, 2008). Yet, at the same time, we are told that this fish, which is inspiring state-of-the-art human armor systems, had no Designer (Bryner, 2008). Once again, naturalistic evolution allegedly was the great cause of a “fascinating” and “complex” creature. But design demands a designer. An effect (especially one of this magnitude) demands an adequate cause. In truth, blind chance, plus non-intelligence, plus random mutations, plus eons of time, neither designed nor caused Polypterus senegalus. Only an intelligent Designer could make such an awe-inspiring creature. As the psalmist wrote: “This great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all” (104:25,24, emp. added).

REFERENCES

Bryner, Jeanna (2008), “Incredible Fish Armor Could Suit Soldiers,” LiveScience, July 27, [On-line], URL: http://www.livescience.com/animals/080727-fish-armor.html.
Crane, David (2008), “Flexible Biological Scalar Body Armor for Future Soldiers?” Defense Review, July 31, [On-line], URL: http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article& amp;sid=1159.

From Jim McGuiggan... Make the sinners suffer

From Jim McGuiggan... Make the sinners suffer

Make the sinners suffer

A couple of years back I modernised and edited Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. It's on the site and you can download it for free—see the Home Page. It's too great a book not to read but the original doesn't read as easily for us as it did for people back when Hawthorne wrote it. I removed some material and added some but the material I added was the kind of thing Hawthorne was driving at; so I have kept faith with his intention. He had a profound insight into the minds and lives of people and the piece that follows makes that clear. The sinner Hester Prynne is being led to the pillory and the scene speaks for itself. Ah Sin, to hell with you!
She reached the place. It was a sort of raised platform at the western end of the market area and almost under the eaves of Boston's earliest church; at first glance it seemed as if it were a part of the church structure. This raised platform was part of a punishing machine though it has been two or three generations since such a thing has been used. It stands now only as a reminder of the time when people thought it was the perfect instrument for promoting good citizenship—the way the French revolutionaries viewed the guillotine. On the platform stood the pillory. The pillory! Perfectly suited for the purpose. It's characteristic of those that have behaved shamefully to want to hide their faces from the public's eyes. They walk with their heads down or cover their faces with their hands. They don't want to see or be seen. But the pillory was deliberately designed to hold the head in one place and in one position—face forward. In fact, the face is the only thing really to be seen, certainly the only thing to take the spectator's eye. And isolating the face from the rest of the body forces the entire personality into the face so that the gaping, wondering and perhaps insulting and cruel public can look right down into the shamed soul of the sinner. Modesty is stripped away and there's no hiding. There's no outrage more flagrant and crass against the very person of a sinner than to deprive him of the power to hide his self-shamed face! This is the essence of cruel punishment made glaringly public by this instrument of wood and iron. They aren't used today but there's more than one way to make a public exhibition of a sinner.
We only need to keep spreading their shame and they go to work or worship or the market—wherever they go—slyly gaped at, knowing eyes strip away sincerity and call it hypocrisy. "She doesn't know that I know she's the one that [...]. Listen to her, look at her, you'd think butter wouldn't melt in her mouth."
Pilloried without the pillory.
And since there are always those that hear the story for the first time there's an unending stream of new gawkers. Bravo, courageous pillory-builders, we've got to keep these sinners before the eyes of the entire populace and it's even more exquisite when they don't know that knowing eyes are weighing them up. Later, when they learn that they've been a spectacle, they'll feel the pain beyond belief. They must be taught that the way of the transgressor is hard and if it doesn't lookhard to us then we must make it hard.
Arrrrrgghhhhhhh!
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.