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Traveling Luck for First Christian Church Oklahoma, United States
The timezone in First Christian Church is America/Rankin_Inlet
Morning Sunrise at 06:23 and Evening Sunset at 18:50. It's Dark
Rough GPS position Latitude. 35.0414°, Longitude. -97.9397° , Elevation. 338m
Morning Sunrise at 06:23 and Evening Sunset at 18:50. It's Dark
Rough GPS position Latitude. 35.0414°, Longitude. -97.9397° , Elevation. 338m
Weather near First Christian Church Last report from Chickasha, Chickasha Municipal Airport, OK 7.4km awayTemperature: 17°C / 63°F
Wind: 10.4km/h Northwest
Cloud: Scattered at 12000ft
Satellite map of First Christian Church and it's surroudings...
Geographic features & Photographs around First Christian Church in Oklahoma, United States
church a building for public Christian worship.
- First Christian Church (0km)
- First Presbyterian Church (0.4km)
- Trinity Baptist Church (0.5km)
- Saint Lukes Episcopal Church (0.5km)
- Central Assembly Church (0.5km)
- First Lutheran Church (0.8km)
- First Baptist Church (1km)
- Lord Is There Church (1km)
- New Life Christian Church (1.1km)
- Calvary Baptist Church (1.1km)
- United Pentecostal Church (1.4km)
- Cornerstone Church (1.5km)
- Grand Assembly of God Church (1.7km)
- College Heights Baptist Church (1.9km)
- Michigan Avenue Baptist Church (2.2km)
- Free Will Baptist Church (2.4km)
- Parkview Christian Church (3km)
- Christ Our Savior Church (3.5km)
- Maramatha Baptist Church (3.6km)
- Southern Hills Baptist Church (4.8km)
school building(s) where instruction in one or more branches of knowledge takes place.
- Chickasha Junior High School (0.4km)
- South School (0.5km)
- Chickasha Senior High School (0.5km)
- West School (1km)
- Lincoln School (1km)
- Saint Joseph Academy (1.1km)
- North School (1.7km)
- Southwest School (1.8km)
- Oklahoma College for Liberal Arts (2.1km)
- Grand School (2.1km)
- Canadian Valley Area Vocational College (2.5km)
- Northwest School (2.6km)
- Friend School (7.1km)
Local Feature A Nearby feature worthy of being marked on a map..
- Church of the Living God (0.8km)
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (0.8km)
- Southern Oaks Church of Christ (0.9km)
- Church of Christ (0.9km)
- Church of Christ (1.1km)
- First Baptist Church-Chickasha (1.1km)
- Word of Life Fellowship (1.6km)
- Southland Shopping Center (1.7km)
- Grandview Shopping Center (1.8km)
- Northside Church of Christ (2.4km)
- Chickasha Square (2.8km)
- First Assembly of God (4.2km)
tower a high conspicuous structure, typically much higher than its diameter.
- KWCO-AM (Chickasha) (3.5km)
- KXXK-FM (Chickasha) (3.5km)
- KXXK-FM (Chickasha) (4.4km)
Accommodation around First Christian Church
BEST WESTERN CHICKASHA 2101 S 4TH P O BOX 1439, Chickasha
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Chickasha 2610 S 4th St, Chickasha
Super 8 Motel Chickasha 2728 S 4th St, Chickasha
stream a body of running water moving to a lower level in a channel on land.
- Rock Hollow Creek (2.8km)
- Line Creek (3.8km)
- Otter Creek (5.3km)
reservoir(s) an artificial pond or lake.
- Oknoname 051049 Reservoir (4.9km)
- Oknoname 051031 Reservoir (5.8km)
dam a barrier constructed across a stream to impound water.
- Oknoname 051049 Dam (4.9km)
- Oknoname 051031 Dam (5.8km)
administrative division an administrative division of a country, undifferentiated as to administrative level.
- Chickasha, Township of (3.5km)
cemetery a burial place or ground.
- Rose Hill Cemetery (1.5km)
hospital a building in which sick or injured, especially those confined to bed, are medically treated.
- Grady Memorial Hospital (2.8km)
populated place a city, town, village, or other agglomeration of buildings where people live and work.
- Chickasha (1.6km)
second-order administrative division a subdivision of a first-order administrative division.
- Grady County (4.7km)
park an area, often of forested land, maintained as a place of beauty, or for recreation.
- Shannon Springs Park (2.5km)
Wikipedia entries close to First Christian Church
- Chickasha, Oklahoma city o city
- Norge, Oklahoma city o city
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- Amber, Oklahoma city o city
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- Alex, Oklahoma city o city
- Cement, Oklahoma city o city
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- Blanchard, Oklahoma city o city
- Minco, Oklahoma city o city
Airports close to First Christian ChurchWill rogers world(OKC), Oklahoma city, Usa (62.7km)
Henry post aaf(FSI), Fort sill, Usa (76.6km)
Tinker afb(TIK), Oklahoma city, Usa (82.2km)
Hobart muni(HBR), Hobart, Usa (128.2km)
Ardmore muni(ADM), Ardmore, Usa (148.9km)


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Cosmetic Surgery
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"I hope to have the eye to do it in such a way that I still look my age but maybe not have my neck swinging around when I go jogging." Please, not when we're getting ready to eat turkey. (via page … [Read more...] about Tom Ford on Having Plastic Surgery
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subset: commoncrawl


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Speak Ill of the DeadBook - 1999
Camilla MacPhee is the black sheep of her perfect, blonde family, although she runs a law office specializing in Justice for Victims of violent crimes. However, her uneasy association with the world of crime takes a bizarre turn when a vicious, vindictive fashion columnist with underworld connections named Mitzi Brochu is crucified in a downtown hotel room. The problem is that Camilla's best friend Robin was on her way to meet the victim, and has become the main suspect. Camilla sets out to vindicate her friend, but finding the real killer isn't easy, as just about anyone among the politicians and supermodels skewered by Mitzi's rapier wit could be said to have had ample motive. The investigation turns dangerous, as Camilla receives cryptic warnings while following a grisly killer's trail marked by more murders of humans and felines. The cast of characters includes a sleazy rock promoter, a nosy, sherry-mad old lady, a suave but mysterious hotel manager, a grumpy Mountie, and several manipulative sisters in this seriously funny first mystery novel by Mary Jane Maffini.
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Camilla MacPhee is a lawyer who runs an organization for victims rights. She has agreed, under pressure from her father, to take on an assistant, Alvin, under a government job training program, but finds herself frustrated with the young man's attitude and work. When her best friend Robin asks to meet her at a nearby hotel, Alvin has misplaced the message, and Camilla finds herself coming into a scene where Robin, obviously in shock, is coming out of a hotel room where someone has been murdered.
With Robin refusing to talk and the police focusing on her, Camilla must figure out herself who might be behind the murder. The murder victim, a catty fashion writer, has no shortage of enemies, but Camilla must figure out motive and opportunity. Camilla is also looking after Robin's six cats while Robin takes refuge at her parents' home.
With lots of Ottawa ambience, an interesting group of suspects, and a twisty plot, this yarn will keep you turning those pages.
Murder and mayhem in the Nation's Capital, where you learn the best defence against crime is a nosy neighbour with a walker. Camilla MacPhee is on a mission through the streets of Ottawa and no stone is left unturned in her pursuit of justice.
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This jewellery set consists of a choker necklace and a pair of earrings
Gold-toned and green choker necklace, has beaded and kundan stone-studded detailing, secured with drawstring fastening Comes with a pair of matching drop earrings, secured with a post-and-back closure
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By TAP Staff Blogger
Posted on August 29, 2018
Privacy Policy: "People assume it means their information will be kept private. Nothing could be further from the truth." – Joseph Turow, Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.
In an opinion piece he wrote for The New York Times, University of Pennsylvania communications professor Joseph Turow shares his research over the past 15 years about how people think about their privacy in the online and offline worlds.
In conducting six national surveys, Professor Turow and his colleagues have included a statement such as, "When a website has a privacy policy, it means the site will not share my information with other websites or companies without my permission." Their findings consistently showed that "When people see the phrase "privacy policy," most assume their information is kept private."
In "Let's Retire the Phrase 'Privacy Policy'," Professor Turow stresses that "privacy policy" is "a misleading label. In reality, these policies explain how companies will use your information — because they are using it."
Below are a few excerpts from "Let's Retire the Phrase 'Privacy Policy'."
The FTC Prompted Disclosure about How Companies Use Customer Data
To be clear, it is lawful — and common — for websites to trade most types of information about us without asking. The reason "privacy policy" is a ubiquitous phrase is that since 1998, the Federal Trade Commission has strongly suggested that all websites (and, later, all apps) include a disclosure about what they do with visitor data and what choices visitors have regarding those uses. What lies behind these links is a cavalcade of disclosures of how businesses across the internet track us, target us and trade our information.
Example: Target's Privacy Policy
Consider Target's privacy policy, which is perfectly legal and not at all unusual. Target collects data about you across its website and app, in addition to knowing what you buy. It uses the information for its own marketing purposes. It also allows "third-party companies" to collect "certain information when you visit our websites or use our mobile applications." In other words, it can share the data it collects with just about anyone.
But Target is not just profiling you based on how you shop with Target. It may also collect what you say on any blogs, chat rooms and social networks you use, and it may obtain "demographic and other information" about you from "third parties."
You have to assume that Target can purchase any known information about you held by any other company. Not even your body is off limits — cameras in some stores "may use biometrics, including facial recognition," for theft prevention and security.
How 'Privacy Policy' Mis-Directs Understanding of Privacy Law
In addition to the "privacy policy" label defusing public anger against commercial surveillance, it may also distract people from the need for effective privacy laws. Two of our surveys asked people whether they agreed or disagreed that "existing laws and organizational practices provide a reasonable level of protection for consumer privacy today."
We found that among people who understood the "privacy policy" label's correct meaning, a majority thought privacy laws needed to be stronger. By contrast, among those who misunderstood what "privacy policy" means, a majority saw no need for organizational and legislative changes in the service of privacy.
Possible Solution
One solution would be for the F.T.C., which is mandated to police deceptive corporate practices, to rule that only sites and apps that don't share people's information without their permission can use that phrase. Otherwise, they should use a more accurate label, such as "how we use your information."
Companies don't want people to realize how extensively they use our information and are likely to object to this new, clearer phrasing. Yet it is a struggle worth pursuing in the interest of creating transparency around the name of a document that has been mistitled and misunderstood since its inception.
Read the full article: "Let's Retire the Phrase 'Privacy Policy'."
Joseph Turow is the Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. He is also the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies. His research focuses on digital cultural industries, especially at the intersection of the Internet, marketing, and society, as well as studies on database marketing, media and privacy, digital out-of-home media, the process of innovation in the mass media, and the relationship between media and the medical system.


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Do you ever feel inside out? Like all your emotions and heart and soul are on the outside totally exposed to the elements. This is me at times, sensitive to everything both beautiful and ugly.
I would be such a good candidate for an anti-depressant. I would feel normal whatever that is. In the middle. But ironically this month marks 6 years of living with dystonia which flares up when I am in this over sensitive place. I hate, hate, hate my dystonia. I hate the relentlessness and the hopelessness. I am not sure if I have real toothache or if the nerves are just inflamed from clenching and pulsing. The irony of taking something to get you out of a bleak place only to be left with something far worse. Oh if I could turn back the clock and coax myself out of that place without meds. But how many people wish they could go back with far worse situations than mine? People who have lost loved ones. Sorry, I am digressing here stuck in my pity party.
You know how you cry at everything after you have just had a baby? That is me lately. I can't even blame hormones as menopause has fortunately not made an appearance yet. I don't know how to get out of this place. Where is the exit? Regular people will be advised to try exercise, breathing, visualization, journaling. Ticking all the boxes there. Gratitude, mindfulness and all the other granola therapies are also present in my life. This extreme inside-outness means I really do see and appreciate all the beauty too. But seeing and reading beautiful things makes me want to weep as well. I am having an emotional acid trip and the intensity of everything is overloading my system.
It has been a crazy week, one of those where you cannot believe how much has happened in just 7 days. People I care about are going through heartache, I wish I could make it better. I want to make everything better for everyone. I don't want anyone to hurt. I know their is sweetness in sorrow, I know it sharpens us so we do see the beauty and love in all things. But less please. Give me a little beige, a little grey, a happy medium. Where is the exit?


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Blog Archives
How We Will Survive This Fear-filled Time!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
When the disciples had rowed for three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the water. He kept coming closer to the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said, "I am Jesus! Don't be afraid!" 21 The disciples wanted to take him into the boat, but suddenly the boat reached the shore where they were headed. John 6:19-21 CEV
855 Spiritual childhood is not spiritual foolishness or softness; it is a sane and forceful way which, due to its difficult easiness, the soul must begin and then continue, led by the hand of God.
As I read this passage from John's gospel this morning, I saw something I had never seen in the event. At first, I thought it might have been something that was a translation specific idea. But I checked all the ones in my digital library, and they all chimed in, in fact, the word was even stronger in the others>
Instead of "suddenly", the word was "immediately"
They got to where they were going so fast they didn't even realize it was happening.
One moment they were terrified.
Scared out of their wits,
Panicked, unable to make sense of what was going on, overwhelmed by what their senses told them.
The next moment, they pulled their boat up on the beach, got out, and life returned to normal.
In the presence of Jesus, everything became different. God was with them, their fears were minimized. They were being led by the hand of God, and their faith was profoundly simple. He is there, that was enough.
This isn't foolishness or weakness, as St Josemaria describes. It seems to easy to do, this idea of becoming childlike in our faith. So easy we often reject it, and the comfort it brings. Our logic tells us to find the solution, to search diligently out the truth from the thousands of self-proclaimed experts, to take action, even if we don't know what to do.
In the back of our minds we hear the psalm, "Be still and know…" and we think to remind ourselves to make time for that, later.
We need to hear his voice, now. We need to allow Him to comfort us, now.
Then, realizing He is guiding us, we can begin to walk with Him through the crisis – and soon arrive on the other side of it. That is where our soul needs to begin, where our hearts have found rest, where our minds have put everything on pause
Soon we will be through this crisis, and it will seem like it happens as suddenly as it started. Led by Jesus, the author, and perfector of our lives Look to Him, Let His love cast out the fear…
He is with You! AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
How Do You See God Working in "Them?" How does that affect your own faith?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
10 Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord!" he replied. 11 The Lord said, "Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. 12 I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again." 13 "But Lord," exclaimed Ananias, "I've heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! 14 And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name." 15 But the Lord said, "Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. 16 And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake." 17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." 18 Instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.
Acts 9:10-19 (NLT2)
675 It's true that he was a sinner. But don't pass so final a judgment. Have pity in your heart and don't forget that he may yet be an Augustine, while you remain just another mediocrity.
How can we hate people as much as we do? Just a glimpse on social media this morning, I see people attacking homeless, immigrants, the President, the House of Representatives (both sides), athletes, Muslims, conservative Christians, those who have had abortions, those who are pro-life, Hollywood and Netflix, people who liked the new Star wars, and those that found major issues with it.
It is spiritually exhausting, all this hatred.
We not only judge their actions, but we also condemn them and assume they are and will always be demonic.
It is as if we don't believe God is capable of turning them as if God has never had to deal with sinners before, and is incapable of transforming them into saints.
Ananias needed to be converted as much as Saul did. His reluctance shows it, as his faith wasn't in the God who was transforming him. Did he think God didn't know who He was sending him to baptize?
Do we believe God does not desire these people we hate to come to faith, to repent, to be transformed?
If we did believe their salvation was possible, would we spew our hatred out on Facebook and Twitter the way we do? Would we try to justify it when we are challenged on our words and actions?
I would imagine this affects us more than we know, go if we realized God could save them, then perhaps we wouldn't hesitate to go to God, confessing our own sins, our own darkness, our own doubts.
We need to be cleansed of all sin, and all unrighteousness, including our doubt that God can save all people, that the cross paid for all sin. That in Christ, all can be considered holy. The more we trust in HIm to save and transform others, the more we will see what He is doing in us.
Trust Him, He is at work, seeking to save the lost, all of us.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
I can't do this! (God says, "Here, I will hold your beer")
Devotional Thought of the Day:
12 My dear friends, you always obeyed when I was with you. Now that I am away, you should obey even more. So work with fear and trembling to discover what it really means to be saved. 13 God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him. 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing. 15 Then you will be the pure and innocent children of God. You live among people who are crooked and evil, but you must not do anything that they can say is wrong. Try to shine as lights among the people of this world, 16 as you hold firmly to the message that gives life. Philippians 2:12-16 (CEV)
That false humility is laziness. Such a "humbleness" leads you to give up rights that really are duties.
I could come up with 1000 parables about this, the Marine Recruit who doesn't think he can climb the wall, the student who doesn't think they can handle algebra, the new employee who is convinced they can't do the job on their own, the pastor who…
O wait, I can't make this too personal.
I can't direct it towards me, after all, I am nobody.
( I say this, despite reading Exodus for the last couple of weeks… )
St. Josemaria's words cut me deeply, as I think of all the things I claim I can't do. After all, I have a load of ready-made excuses. Genetic ones, you know, the kind I don't want pity for, but heck, I will take a lesser burden if you want to help a poor guy out. And then there is this lack and that lack. And then there is the fact that I am a sinner. I obviously cannot do this. A man has got to know his limitations, at least what the theologian Clint Eastwood said. And I know mine, and I am not capable. I know this.
In fact, I don't know that.
But is my focus on my inability a sign of laziness? If not, what if I am just afraid of what God might require?
Either is a possibility if I am honest.
For what I forget when I do my self-evaluation is the work God is doing in my life, and in yours. God has saved us, and we need to realize that means we are changing. That we can listen to God and hear His vision, what He wants us to do, whom to forgive, whom to love, who to reach out to, in sharing that love.
He gives us even, the desire and the ability to do what pleases Him, what He has created us to do, what He has called us to do, what the Holy Spirit has equipped us to do.
Maybe it is time to stop procrastinating, stop finding excuses, and simply let God lead us, as He builds His Church.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, remind us that You are the potter, that even as Jesus obeyed and went to the cross we can bear our crosses with the joy You have set before us, knowing that You will be with us all the way! Thank you Lord for not giving up, but calling us and working in us, giving us the desire and ability to be Your faithful children. AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Do We Realize What is Going On Around Us?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting. Exodus 33:11 (NLT2)
We might even venture to say that what God does is always an answer to this kind of appeal from someone who prays. This does not mean that God is like the potentates of this world who want to be asked before they bestow a favor. No—it is so because it must be so by the very nature of things, because it is only when we pray, when we transcend ourselves, when we surrender ourselves, when we recognize God as a reality, when we open ourselves to him, only then that the door of the world is open for God and that space is created in which he can act for and on us men. God is, it is true, always with us, but we are not always with him, says Saint Augustine. It is only when we accept his presence by opening our being to him in prayer that God's activity can truly become an action on and for us men.
THE SECOND PETITION (of the Lord's prayer)
"Thy kingdom come."
7 What does this mean?
Answer: To be sure, the kingdom of God comes of itself, without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may also come to us
One of my favorite stories in scripture is found in 2 Kings 6, where Elisha's servant had no clue what is going on around him. He sees what the prophet and he will face, and not realizing the power of God, falls into despair.
We do this often, for our faith is weak, and our memory of God's presence is not so good. We struggle in the face of the problems, the trauma, and the self-doubt that is caused by sin and temptation. We may not want to admit it, but everyone struggles with that self-doubt. For if we can't do what we want to do, what is right, and we can't stop the self-defeating sin that has ensnares us, we end up living in a world that is broken, and we can't find a way to cope with it. Deny it, get distracted from it by our addictions, we just keep going.
Elisha's servant hadn't learned what to do yet, but Elisha did. He simply prayed. The servant then saw the truth, and what was real! He found out what was really going on, and it was a different story.
THat's why Luther and Pope Benedict talk about prayer the way they do. If we don't pray, it is not that God isn't active, for He is. What is missing is our awareness of what God is doing.
It is impossible to know what is going on around us, if we don't see what God is doing.
Prayer is the beginning of that, as we talk with God, much as Moses did, or Enoch or even David. Blunt conversations, face to face, as we would have with a friend. Allowing God to, with all His wisdom and power, to intervene in our lives, as He reveals His love and the mercy which forgives and heals us. That is what Benedict XVI is talking about, as we transcend ourselves in prayer, and meet with God and talk. It is what LUther referred to when he talked of God's kingdom coming among us.
We see His reality then, as it is revealed at the speed and fullness He knows we can take. We see His love, His concern, we see the power of God at work reforming us into a masterpiece.
Lord, help us to talk with You, as Moses did. Not just face to face, but as a friend talks to a friend. Lord Jesus, help us depend on You, not neglecting You and talking with You. Open our eyes to the work of the Holy Spirit. We pray this in Jesus' Name. AMEN!
Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year, ed. Irene Grassl, trans. Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), 286–287.
Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 346.
The Struggle of Being Holy….and How it Accomplished!
Devotional Thought of the Day
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father." 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Romans 8:15-17 (NLT2)
6. We also believe, teach, and confess that, although the genuinely believing and truly regenerated persons retain much weakness and many shortcomings down to their graves, they still have no reason to doubt either the righteousness which is reckoned to them through faith or the salvation of their souls, but they must regard it as certain that for Christ's sake, on the basis of the promises and the Word of the holy Gospel, they have a gracious God.
Men expect redemption from themselves, and they seem quite prepared to provide it. Thus there is linked to the primacy of the future the primacy of practice, the primacy of human activity above all other activities. Theology, too, shows itself more and more open to this concept—orthopraxis replaces orthodoxy. "Eschatopraxis" seems more important than eschatology. If in earlier days it was left to popular enlightenment to tell the lower class that artificial fertilizer was more effective than prayer, now, after a suitable interval, we can read similar commentaries in the kind of "religious" literature that strives to reflect the contemporary Zeitgeist; we can even find voiced there the argument that under certain circumstances prayer itself will have to be "refunctioned": it can hardly be considered any longer an appeal for divine assistance; on the contrary, it must be regarded as a period of quiet composure in preparation for the practice of human self-help.
Benedict XVI's words about orthopraxy replacing orthodoxy (right practice replacing right praise) seem eerily prophetic. Written in 1971, these words I believe talk of the church today. For the focus on doing things correctly, doing things in a way that seems holy to man dominate both traditional and contemporary Christianity, It can be seen in both conservative and liberal voices.
As he notes, even prayer becomes the preparation for doing things correctly,
As I look at this, I think I see a tie into the quote from the Lutheran Confessions in green. I think that we struggle with the fact that while we believe, the weakness and shortcoming we have (which is simply a fancy way of saying we still sin). We don't know how to deal with our own frailty, our own brokenness. We are impatient with the healing we are experiencing in Christ, and so we seek to fast track our own sanctification.
If only we can do everything right, if only our performance reveals how much faith we have, then maybe others will see us as holy, and then, based on our testimony, we can believe we are holy. So we look for the masters, the life coaches, the pastors who will show us the way to worship, how to live, how to raise our kids, and be a bastion or moral and religious perfection.
And instead of being an imitator of Christ, we try to become a clone of those who we follow. Driven by the fear of being revealed to be something less than faithful, we take on the mannerisms, while leaving a soul behind that is empty, broken, and struggling with the sin that so easily ensnares us.
Prior to the passage from Romans above, we see Paul going from the joys of rising with Christ in baptism, to the absolute low of discovering he still can't get things right. Orthopraxis is impossible, He can't do what is right, he can't help but do what is wrong. In this moment of shame and self-pity, he finds in Romans 8:1 that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. That despite his struggle with sin, God sees Paul as righteous, holy, a son of God.
This discovery changes things, it changes our fear of our sin being discovered into a cry for help, Daddy! Daddy! HELP! We realize that our hope is not found in our attempts to be holy, but in hearing His voice tell us we are His children. In hearing His promise to complete everything in the day of Jesus. We find our transformation not by our work in ministry, not in our perfection of word and sacrament, but from being there, broken, and finding healing.
Nothing I can do will bring you the level of holiness you will be satisfied with, in this age. For satisfaction means you want to judge if you have made it, or rely on the judgment of others. That desire for satisfaction will drain you, ripping out from you the core of your heart and soul.
But allowing God to minister to us, allowing His grace, His mercy and love to pour into us, living life being drawn to Him, sometimes in tears, this is our hope. Not starting with prayer, but a life lived in Him, allowing Him to recreate us.
This is our hope of wholeness, of holiness. Letting God be God, as we realize we are His.
Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 474). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (I. Grassl, Ed., M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.) (pp. 242–243). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
No Man is an Island. Neither is the Church.
Devotional thought for the day:
5 Then the LORD said to me, 6"Haven't I the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter's hands. 7If at any time I say that I am going to uproot, break down, or destroy any nation or kingdom, 8but then that nation turns from its evil, I will not do what I said I would. 9On the other hand, if I say that I am going to plant or build up any nation or kingdom, 10but then that nation disobeys me and does evil, I will not do what I said I would. 11Now then, tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem that I am making plans against them and getting ready to punish them. Tell them to stop living sinful lives—to change their ways and the things they are doing. Jeremiah 18:5-11 TEV
9 I wrote you in my earlier letter not to associate with those who sin sexually. 10 But I did not mean you should not associate with those of this world who sin sexually, or with the greedy, or robbers, or those who worship idols. To get away from them you would have to leave this world. 11 I am writing to tell you that you must not associate with those who call themselves believers in Christ but who sin sexually, or are greedy, or worship idols, or abuse others with words, or get drunk, or cheat people. Do not even eat with people like that.
12–13 It is not my business to judge those who are not part of the church. God will judge them. But you must judge the people who are part of the church. The Scripture says, "You must get rid of the evil person among you." 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 NCV
Our goal is not to form islands of peace in the midst of a disintegrated society but to educate people with the ability to transform this society. Therefore, "fruits and results."
I often hear people misquoting the Book of the Revelation (often mispronounced revelations) advising people to withdraw from society, to come out of Babylon as if somehow they could live a life separate from their neighbors, their family, and friends who do not know that they can depend on God.
Some Christian schools started with that purpose, and there are Christian groups to offer an option to joining secular fraternal organizations like the Boy Scouts, Lions, or Elks. There are now even coffee shops on church campuses, that some people use so they don't have to go to that evil Starbucks and grab their venti triple cappuccino with fancy whipped cream and pumpkin froth.
It is as if we want to form special communities within communities, just for those who are good and pure and holy. It is as we need to create safe islands for believers so that they are not tempted to sin the rest of the evil world.
Will we recognize the gospel there in the midst of Jeremiah's prophecy, that God will welcome anyone back? Not just any person, but any people group, any nation. What a blessed hope! What an incredible promise!
Will we recognize the wisdom that inspired Paul to make sure we understood that it was sin among the people of God that concerned him, not the sins of the world? That we aren't to avoid interaction with normal sinners, but rather to deal with those in the church that struggle with sin first. Those others, yes they need to be saved, far more than they need us judging them.
Will we hear Pope Francis plea, not to segregate ourselves, withdraw to our own safe places? Rather, as the Holy Spirit works within us, to educate people to have the ability to transform society, to share the hope and peace found in Jesus which will do that very thing.
We have to have more trust in God than we fear the world's sin. We have to have more confidence in His love and care than anxiety about somehow being separated from the love of God ( AN impossibility Dontcha know!)
With our eyes focused on Jesus, we need to go to the same places he did. To those broken by sin, to those blinded by greed, to those who do not understand that God loves them. To those who are broken, just like we've been broken. We've got to invite them into our homes, our churches, into the place of peace and healing we find as we dwell in GOd.
This is who we are in Christ. people's who work and message is one of reconciling people to God, and therefore to another. We can't do that from pristine protected islands where we pretend all is perfect.
So go out there, live and help someone know that God loves them. AMEN!
Pope Francis. A Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections from His Writings. Ed. Alberto Rossa. New York; Mahwah, NJ; Toronto, Paulist Press; Novalis, 2013. Print.
The Priceless Blessing We Cannot Afford to Neglect…
Devotional thought of the Day:
23 After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Matthew 14:23 (NLT)
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. Romans 8:26-27 (NLT)
16 Ultimately, if we should list as sacraments all the things that have God's command and a promise added to them, then why not prayer, which can most truly be called a sacrament? It has both the command of God and many promises. If it were placed among the sacraments and thus given, so to speak, a more exalted position, this would move men to pray. (1)
The intercessor is a worshipper who has understood the deepest feelings of God and clings to them, despite contrary appearances.
In prayer, our flesh, identified with the Word made flesh and moved by the Spirit, longs for the Father. This is the mystery that unfolds in prayer and that promises us a unique communion with the Father, in the Spirit, and through the Son.
He takes our flesh and we receive his Spirit.
I am sitting in my office, as I do most Saturdays. My primary task is finalizing my sermon, the two Bible studies I teach tomorrow. As I do, there is another task I do… on that can be heartbreaking at times.
It is receiving the prayers that people drop into mention, that text or message me or email me about. They want to make sure they are included in the bulletin for our people to pray about, or if more confidential, that I will include them in my private prayers.
This morning has been no different, in fact, one could say "business" has been a bit brisker than normal. A military person going to Korea, another beloved friend diagnosed with cancer, a friend dealing with diabetes and other health concerns, people with family problems, people looking for a new home, people with family struggles. There are a lot of people we pray for, an act often called intercession, or petitioning God on their behalf. Or more simply – we ask God to bless them and care for them in their situation. That includes praying for healing, for strengthening their trust and dependence on Him, which will give them hope. Mostly that they would see God acting in their lives.
This is prayer, this is, in a very real way, communing with God. Or as the Lutheran confessions (in green) call it, a sacramental time. Pope Franci echoes this sentiment when he calls it the mystery that is unfolded and revealed, a time of intimate communion, a time where we understand the deepest feelings of God and cling to them.
As I prepare for tomorrow's sermon, this hits home strong. Jesus sends the disciples across the lake, he sends the crowds away, and he heads in to the hills to be alone, to pray. Specifically, the word for prayer is the word for petition. He has to talk wiht the Father about the people he encountered, He has to bring them into the relaitonship He has with the Father because they matter to both of them!
Add to this the action of the Holy Spirit, seen in the passage from Romans. This incredible thought that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us as well, praying when we are too overwhelmed when we cannot find the words when we can't find the words or thoughts to pray. It is then that the Spirit is definitely interceding with and for us, with words that are inaudible, because the Spirit's groans,, the Spirit's pleading is beyond expression.
That is how much the Spirit cares, how much the Spirit is in touch with our needs, with the needs of those we love, and those they love.
Prayer isn't some empty time of waiting for an appeal to be heard and decided. It isn't a time to do out of a sense of obligation, either to God or to those who ask.
It is the time we have been given to walk with God, to see His heart, to realize His love for them is even deeper than ours. THat He cares more for those we intercede for than He does for flowers and birds, and if he cares for them and makes them beautiful bow much more for us is He active, then we can relax, we can be at peace.
Such is this priceless gift of prayer, our time with God. And like the other sacramental times, we need to slow it down hear his voice. To let Him comfort our tears, to let Him still our anxious hearts, to help us realize He is with us….even when we don't know what to pray.
He is with us…
If that is all prayer did,, was make us aware of that, it would be worth it.
Yet to realize that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are advocating for us, pleading for us, praying with us….. how that helps us… how incredible, how much more does it help us understand the heart of our incredible God who loves us!
Be at peace, the Lord is with you!
Tappert, Theodore G., ed. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959. Print.
Pope Francis. A Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections from His Writings. Ed. Alberto Rossa. New York; Mahwah, NJ; Toronto, ON: Paulist Press; Novalis, 2013. Print.
Pope Francis. A Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections from His Writings. Ed. Alberto Rossa. New York; Mahwah, NJ; Toronto, ON: Paulist Press; Novalis, 2013. Print.
Why Do We Play Hide, and Not Seek?
Devotional Thought fo the Day:
16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. James 5:16 (NLT)
323 Anyone who hides a temptation from his director shares a secret with the devil. He has become a friend of the enemy.
3 With regard to the time, it is certain that most people in our churches use the sacraments, absolution and the Lord's Supper, many times a year. Our clergy instruct the people about the worth and fruits of the sacraments in such a way as to invite them to use the sacraments often. On this subject our theologians have written many things which our opponents, if they are but honest, will undoubtedly approve and praise.
There is no hope, no chance to correct the wrongs, no chance to fix that was broken, the person thought. So they had one of two easy solutions, Ignore the problem, or run and hide from it. either way, the damage increases, and the help needed to overcome the problem is ignored.
If this was a medical issue, (and yes people ignore and hide from them) most of us would come alongside the person and urge, even beg them to seek help. If it was an addiction, we might risk their anger and do the same. But how many of us are going to take such an action on something that is far more critical, the spiritual health of our friends and family? How many of us would even think to suggest absolution, the ministry, and sacrament of reconciliation, if someone was sharing their battle with guilt and shame?
St. Josemaria's words are harsh, that when we hide our sins, when we don't confess them, when we don't ask for help in dealing with them, we effectively align with Satan, and we accept the bondage of guilt and shame which will paralyze and haunt us.
That's pretty serious, and after 20 years of ministry, and seeing the problems that unresolved guilt and shame brought upon people, upon their family and friends, I concur. All we do when we ignore sin, or when we isolate ourselves from others because of it is fall, to trust in Satan's deception.
Confession and absolution, the hearing that God does forgive us because of Jesus' work on the cross, that free us from that bondage, it starts the healing of brokenness that would otherwise crush us. It is liberating, it brings about both incredible joy and incredible peace.
It's time to stop ignoring our sin, or hiding from others as the sin and guilt tear our souls apart.
God loves you and wants you to know, He desires to cleanse you of it all, to restore your soul, to mend the broken hearts. He wants us to encourage each other to know this, to hear it from those entrusted to speak on His behalf.
Come, know the peace of God, and rejoice in the freedom Christ's blood bought you!
Escriva, Josemaria. Furrow (Kindle Locations 1526-1527). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Tappert, Theodore G., ed. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959. Print.
Brother to Brother…..one glorious hope!
Discussion Thought of the Day:
3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. Ephesians 4:3-6 (NLT)
Where man is no longer believed to be under God's protection, to have God's breath in him, then people begin to assess him from a utilitarian point of view. Then there appears the barbarity that tramples on human dignity. (1)
Twenty-one years ago, an album containing the music of two masters was put together, one singing the lead of the other's composition, both playing the instruments and blending their voices together. They went on tour together, and while I would love to see many people in concert, to see Michael Card and John Michael Talbot together, would be one of my dreams.
The album was called Brother to Brother, and it was playing in the background when I came across the words of Pope Ratzinger in my devotional reading this morning. The lead song, One Faith, comes from another favorite album, JMT's The Regathering, which finds its inspiration in the words above from Ephesians 4. It pictures the regathering of all the saints, into the perfect communion that is Christ Jesus. As I look out on a broken world and the one holy, catholic (small c means all of us) apostolic and sadly fractured church, that day seems so precious, so wonderful and so far away.
It is the prayer and desire of Jesus fulfilled, that we truly be one, even as the Father and He are one.
And we see the glimpse of it in Pope Benedict's (Cardinal Ratzinger when he wrote them) above in blue. When we realize that every man is under God's protection, every man has God's breath in them, we can no longer view them as anything utilitarian. We cannot hang generalizations, we cannot define them by affiliation or hang demographic labels on them. Even the labels adversary and enemy fade away, along with fears and anxieties, as we see Christ in them, and therefore find someone who is loved, even as we are loved. Someone Jesus is calling to, even as he calls to us.
Pope Benedict went on to say, "We must always look upon other men as persons with whom we shall one day share God's joy. We must see them as persons with whom we are called to be members of the body of Christ, with whom we shall one day sit at the table of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the table of Jesus Christ, as persons called to be our brothers or sisters, and to be, with us, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, children of God."
This isn't easy. It means we must trust and depend on God more than our fears, our anxieties, our resentments. it requires seeing the individual as more than important than those things. The only way to do that is to see the heart of God, the Lord who gave His body to be broken, and His blood to be shed for all on the cross, and then unify all He calls in a meal where He shares His body and blood again.
Including those that don't understand yet, for we are called to love them, and invite them to this feast…..We won't conquer our fears, we won't willingly become martyrs if necessary if we don't see them loved by God, even as He loves us.
Lord have mercy on us sinners, and help us to see that You died for each and every individual. AMEN!
(1) Ratzinger, Joseph. Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. Ed. Irene Grassl. Trans. Mary Frances McCarthy and Lothar Krauth. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992. Print.
May the Lord Lead Your Hearts
May the Lord Lead Your Hearts
2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
May the grace, that incredible gift of God's love, mercy and peace, lead you to share His message in a way that it spreads, and where it is heard and rejoiced in by all you share it with!
Rescue From Wicked People?
This week has been, to be honest, very trying. My patience hasn't been all that strong, neither has been my endurance.
It has been challenging, mostly because I wonder if we truly understand the love of God, and how He works in our lives.
I would love to say the election was the cause of it, but I think it only revealed what was hidden, as many of us identified those we thought we needed to be freed, or delivered from; the people Paul asked the Thessalonian people to pray he would be delivered from,
Those wicked, evil people who are not believers.
We think we know what that means; we probably have various people in mind. Until I remind you that the word belief here is as often translated faith. So, the people we are talking about are those who do not have faith, who do not trust in God. People who do not depend on Him.
Uhm – is this too close to home for you? It is for me.
Because while I will easily say I believe in God, it is another thing to ask me whether I trust Him, or whether I truly depend on him.
Especially this week, as I have watched some of my closest friends call each other, and the people we are supposed to love and pray for, well, we haven't done that this well in America.
Rather, we identified them as the enemy, because we don't understand how they are different from us… until we realize they are "us."
When it came to us
Paul is making a similar plea here in verse 1.
He wrote, "Pray that the Lord's message will be spread and honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you!"
Which leads to a question – is the Lord's message being spread and by us?
Or has that taken a back seat as our anxieties, and our fears about what other anxious people will do dominate us?
Is God's message spread and glorified among us still?
Surely it can, yet there are moments where we gossip about our neighbors or fail to put things, as Luther explained, in the best construction. That's not easy to do, it sometimes takes time, to sit with them and find out their fears, their concerns, their pains, and positions.
It takes communication, and we often damage the opportunity for it.
Can we return to the joy that we had when God's message of grace we understood with our hearts, souls, minds and strength for the first time?
Can we see the message of God honored again, as it did when we first heard it? And then can we dare spread it to those, who like us, find themselves broken in this world?
Can we do as Paul was confident the Saints then would, doing and continuing to do that which he taught us to do?
How we do and continue to do what God commissioned
The answer is, yes.
Yes, even though we sin, we can still be restored, the awe at the love of God can be found again. It was why we remember our baptisms, where sin, all our sin, was washed away by God's command, because of our connection to Jesus and His death and resurrection. To restore that joy of our salvation is why we gather here, to remember and reveal again the love of God through the words of scripture, and through sermons like this.
It is why we come to the rail, and receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ as we take and eat, as we remember the words of Jesus that established the covenant, as we are renewed by the gifts He gives us here.
We need this, all of us, from every demographic you can think of, from every political persuasion, we need to be refocused, revived, delivered and saved from the evil. That happens one way,
Hear again the blessing of Paul,
May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.
There it Is, there is what we need, this incredible love of God, revealed to us. Then trusting in Him, depending upon Him to save us, to strengthen us and guard us against evil becomes our nature. Doing and continuing to do what we've been taught through scripture becomes not only our action; but our desire. This all happens because God leads us, leads our hearts into understanding and expressing His love for us. That love, as it is revealed, causes us to trust in Him, to depend on Him, no matter what else happens.
For knowing how much he loves us, that is beyond anything. What that loves is everything, it is glorious, and wonderful, joyful and enables us to endure anything.
We'll even realize how many people that word "us" contains, and knowing that will cause this love, this message of God to spread rapidly, and be honored and glorified.
For it contains us all, for God so loved us all, and we all need to for Him to lead our hearts into a full understanding and expression of His love.
Here, he is doing that exact thing… may we realize it. AMEN!


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Mischevious Monster Activities for Children
Friday 20th July 2018
This week we're turning fruit into creatures... again! Our Apple Monster Mouths are sure to make healthy snack time more fun. With a few other monstrous activity ideas too, our monster friends really have been inspiring us this week here at Weekend Box Towers!
Apple Monster Mouths
For this little snack idea you'll need some apples, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, strawberries and our new favourite thing, edible eyes! These can be bought online or in some bigger supermarkets - aren't they cool?!
First cut your apple into quarters and then carefully cut out a segment from the middle of each of these quarters. Now your own little monsters can start helping!
Simply fill the 'mouth' with peanut butter, slide in a slice of strawberry for the tongue and push in a few sunflower seeds for the teeth. Use the peanut butter to stick on the edible eyes and you're done! Snack time made easy.
Are you a monster mover?
Your little ones can become monster movers with Justin and his gang over at Justin's House! Teach your kids some monster moves with this song and dance.
Lollipop Stick Monster
These lollipop stick monsters are an easy (not to mention cheap!) little craft to try at home.
Use PVA glue to stick one small lollipop stick horizontally across the back of 5 or 6 larger lollipop sticks standing vertically. This should hold them all together and form the body of your monster.
Decorate and go wild! Try gems, glitter, colouring in or googly eyes. You can make as many as you like with as many different features as you like - anything goes when it comes to monsters!
We hope we've managed to make monsters seem a little less scary and a little more friendly for your little ones this week. Be sure to share your crafty creations to our Facebook page
Love, the Weekend Box Team.


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Monday, 26 January 2015 - 11:15
Apparel industry will maintain growth momentum.
General Secretary of the Joint Apparel Association Forum states that Sri Lanka's apparel industry has shown continuous growth over the years.
Exports for the first eleven months of the year recorded a value of 4,302.4 million US dollars. The target set for 2014 was 4.8 billion US dollars.
He said that their target is to become a five billion dollar industry this year and they are confident of achieving it.
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If I may, let me tell you a story from 1950s America.
In 1954 in Minnesota a woman named Dorothy Martin became convinced that the world would end in the early hours of December 21 of that year.
She claimed to have made psychic contact with a god-like figure from another planet, who had told her the world was set to be ravaged by an apocalyptic flood but that she, and any other true believers, would be saved.
She prophesied that at midnight on the 21st an alien spacecraft would swoop down into her back garden and take her and anyone else with her to safety.
As is often the case with prophecies of impending doom, some chose to believe it. In fact, some became so convinced Martin's claim was true that they left their jobs and their families behind, to go and live with her.
All so that when the time came, they would be saved.
However, when the 21st did roll around and no space ship, or indeed flood of any kind emerged, rather than coming to their senses and concluding Martin was clearly crazy, many in the group became more convinced, not less, that the threat had been real.
Instead of leaving Martin's home and attempting to patch things up with their families, the cult members rejoiced.
Instead of labelling their leader a fraud and themselves as fools for believing her, they concluded their faith must have been so strong that in the end the god-like figure chose not to destroy Earth.
They believed they had saved the world.
Now why, I am sure you are all wondering, is a 65-year-old story about aliens who never appeared, relevant to an Olympic news website in 2019?
It is relevant because it provides an example of a psychological phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance, which I cannot help but think could be at play across the world of sports governance .
I first came across the theory - and indeed the above story - in a book by the British sports journalist Matthew Syed called Black Box Thinking, which if you have not read by the way, I would thoroughly recommend.
In brief, it states that when a person is confronted with evidence that contradicts a deeply held belief, they are more likely to reframe, or even totally ignore the evidence, than change their views.
As soon as the world was not destroyed on December 21 in 1954, it would, seemingly, have made perfect sense for the cult members to reject their belief that an alien had ever planned to destroy Earth.
But instead, because they had bet their lives on it, they became more, not less convinced, that they had been right all along.
And the fascinating thing about cognitive dissonance is that it actually makes such a seemingly irrational reaction more likely than just accepting the facts.
Could a similar thing be happening across the Olympic Movement?
Regularly those in power make statements that seem to clearly contradict the evidence available.
For example, on Friday (February 1) Tokyo 2020 chief executive Toshirō Mutō claimed there is no reason for Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda to step down, even temporarily, despite him being embroiled in a corruption scandal.
Regarding the race to host the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the IOC have claimed it is good they only have two candidates because that way, less campaigns will lose.
But that comes even though the system clearly isn't attracting hosts as it is supposed to.
At the Esports Forum organised last year by the Global Association of International Sports Federations the late Patrick Baumann, who was thought to be the driving force behind the IOC's flirtation with esports, suggested esports players are as fit as traditional Olympic athletes.
That statement came even though the only example provided during the forum of an esports player doing physical training to directly benefit their gaming, was a girl who said she does wrist exercises in the gym to avoid repetitive strain injuries.
After Pyeongchang 2018 there was the claim from IOC Athlete Commission chair Kirsty Coventry to justify the ending of Russia's Olympic ban, that their neutral team at the Games was the cleanest of every team, even though two of their athletes tested positive for drugs when many other countries failed no tests at all.
And the examples go on.
At the turn of the year there were the repeated insistence's from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that their hard deadline for Russia to hand over data from their Moscow Laboratory was indeed hard, despite the fact it obviously wasn't.
And amid ticketing issues at the 2018 Asian Games a member of the Organising Committee insisted you would struggle to spot empty seats at any venue, when in reality many were largely deserted.
Of course, some of these statements could have just been spin. One would like to think that those in power are capable of spotting problems when they arise and do try and deal with them accordingly, even if publicly they play down their significance.
But the frequency at which these kinds of claims are being made, suggests to me that another factor is at play.
And if any of you are thinking the above examples all target the so called "establishment", well there are others from their opponents too.
Take the reaction to WADA's handling of the Russian doping crisis.
The most ardent critics of the anti-doping movement appear to have reached a point where nothing done to combat doping will ever be enough. For example yesterday I saw a tweet from once such critic, who tried to claim WADA's reaction welcoming the Court of Arbitration for Sport sanctions introduced against 12 Russian athletes, was somehow further evidence of anti-doping's problems not successes.
The point is, humans are inherently bad at accepting being wrong, to the point that often we refuse to admit we ever made a mistake without even realising it.
To use a sporting analogy, how many times have you either said or heard the excuse, "it just wasn't my day," or, "I got unlucky" to justify a loss rather than analysing what actually happened?
I find myself saying it practically every time I step off a golf course, and at most I'm only ever playing for a bit of pocket money or a pint off a friend.
But in contrast, if your name is Thomas Bach and the state of the Olympics is in your hands, or If you're Sir Craig Reedie and bringing Russia into line is down to you, the stakes of the decisions you make are obviously much, much, much higher.
Considering cognitive dissonance can come into play even in a scenario that realistically means nothing, is it not highly likely that it is also effecting decisions made by those with serious influence, where the consequences of admitting failure could be huge?
If they make a claim that comes back to bite them, or take a decision that ends up having a negative impact on the very thing they're trying to improve, how likely are they really, to admit it?
Not only that, how likely are they to then learn from their mistake?
All of us would like to say we are capable of admitting our errors, but in reality, the truth is that often we don't.
Cognitive dissonance dictates that the higher the stakes, the more likely we are to convince ourselves the mistake never happened. The more likely we are to fish around for anything that could justify our original stance.
I'm not suggesting the flaws of human psychology are always to blame for questionable decisions taken and statements made, in the Olympic Movement.
But can we be sure that cognitive dissonance is never in play? Can we all be confident, that when a mistake is made, it is even recognised, let alone tackled?
I'm not sure we can.


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I've been trying to connect my device to AWS IoT for a week, but I'm getting the same error "no matter what" I do (ERROR: mqtt_connect -45), which seemingly is an authorization issue of some kind?
Here are the exact steps I'm doing to connect my device:
This process gives the following output:
LTE Link Connecting ...
LTE Link Connected!
IPv4 Address 0x68e7dd12
client_id: <my-thing-name>
ERROR: mqtt_connect -45
Please help me resolve this as I can't identify which step(s) I'm missing.
Thank you in advance.
The mqtt_connect: -45 by checking the error codes means operation not supported on the socket. This is usually caused by a misconfiguration of the certificates which are provisioned.
Unchecking Use provisioned certificates will provide certificates to the security tag selected in the Kconfig. I don't think you need to add the CONFIG_NRF_CLOUD_PROVISION_CERTIFICATES=y option as this would be for the nRF Cloud library.
From what I can see from your post your problem is probably what you state here CLOUD_CLIENT_PUBLIC_CERTIFICATE is the public key
This is not your public key, but your public certificate from AWS, the file generated from AWS, is usually formatted in the following form <certificate-set-id>-certificate.pem.crt this file as mentioned before has the -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- at the beginning of the file. The private key file should have a -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- at the beginning, and the file format is usually <certificate-set-id>-private.pem.key.It's also important, as mentioned before that you follow the formatting of the certificates.h file by having \n endings at the end of each new line in the certificates.h header file.
I do recommend after provisioning your certificates, and you get a successful MQTT connection, that you check the Use provisioned certificates option again. This reduces the tear on the modem flash by not writing the certificates again to the modem. Also, by having the option unchecked, your certificates will be stored in the firmware image and when flashed in the flash of the device. By re-enabling the option, you avoid both these problems
Thank you for the in-depth answer, the problem was indeed that I was using the public key instead of the certificate. Now I am, however, receiving two more error codes "MQTT connect failed -61" and "ERROR: mqtt_connect -12" when I try to connect. Do you have any idea what the cause of this might be? I remember seeing a more descriptive list of the error codes somewhere, but I'm not able to find it again.
Also, I'm not sure if this is a version-thing, but the "CONFIG_NRF_CLOUD_PROVISION_CERTIFICATES" option is nowhere to be found in my sample (aws_fota v1.0.0), I only find "CONFIG_USE_PROVISIONED_CERTIFICATES".
What I tried to say is that you don't need the CONFIG_NRF_CLOUD_PROVISION_CERTIFICATES
The error you get is described as ECONNREFUSED 61 /* Connection refused */ meaning the MQTT endpoint you tried to connect to refused your connection request. I would guess that what you set as the AWS IoT MQTT broker hostname is wrong.
Not sure why you get -12 ENOMEM but I assume it's because a resource is already in use and you can't have 2 MQTT instances with TLS at the same as there is not enough memory on the device to handle it(This is just an assumption)
I've found it easiest to find the host name by going to the test panel of the AWS IoT console. Then click on the name of the console usually something like (Connected as iotconsole-1570880786449-0) and choose view endpoint
The MQTT broker hostname was already found where you described. I tried adding it once more just to eliminate the possibility of typos, but I'm still getting the same errors. The correct port is 8883, right?
Also when the thing was added to AWS IoT, a username and password was created, should these pieces of information be added somewhere, maybe?
Maybe attach a policy to your certificates which looks like this https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nRFCloud/device-simulator-v2/saga/data/policy.json could help.
Also, double-check that Client Id = Thing name and that your certificates are connected to that specific name. It could also be that you have malformed the certificates in the certificates.h file. It's important to not add any additional information to the strings except \n. So you get something which looks like#define MY_CERT \
"-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n"\
"-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n"
#define MY_CERT \
"-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n"\
"-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n"
If that does not work I would try to debug by testing that the certificates work with the AWS Python SDK https://docs.aws.amazon.com/greengrass/latest/developerguide/IoT-SDK.html if you know python. They also have bindings for JS, Java, and C++ but the python and JS are the simplest ones to get up and running with certificates.
Just tried connecting with the DeviceClass example for JS https://github.com/aws/aws-iot-device-sdk-js and it worked like a charm. Both publishing and receiving messages.
Can't see that I've made any mistakes entering the information from the certificates either, as this would be the only logical point of failure as far as I know. Not sure where to go from here...
But maybe it's not a certificate error, since the error code changed when I added the correct public certificate, instead of the public key earlier?
I'm a bit out of ideas then, if the port, host, clientId, and certificates worked with the IoT SDK, it means that your AWS IoT setup is correct, so that leaves only the setup on the device. So I would make sure the client ID, host, and certificates are correctly setup on the device.It could still be a certificate error. Not getting -45 only means that the input is valid, meaning you stored something that looks like a CA in the CA slot in the modem (same goes for the rest). Unfortunately, it can't tell you if what you are given is more than a valid cert. So the ECONNREFUSED 61 could mean that the certificates contain some information that the server did not expect, meaning the one/some of the certificates could have been mangled in the certificates.h file when you wrote them to the modem. I recommend maybe trying to ensure the formating and that no extra characters have been added to it.


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The Moen Grab Bar Shower Holder is a holder for handshower designed for use by individuals with lower extremity, balance, mobility, upper extremity, or severe physical disabilities or severe spinal cord injury. This unit attaches to most vertical, horizontal, or diagonal grab bars without tools and accommodates most handshowers.
DIMENSIONS: Fits grab bars 1.25 to 1.5 inches in diameter. WARRANTY: Limited lifetime warranty.
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- Home
- Who We Are
- Our Team
You are here
- CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ as awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.;
- Certified Fund Specialist as bestowed by the Institute of Business & Finance;
- A holder of Series 6, 7, 63, 24 and 66 registrations through LPL Financial along with life, accident, and health insurance licenses.
Thomas Nee, Jr., CFP®, CFS is passionate about helping people pursue their financial goals – especially when it comes to retirement. He ascribes his work ethic to the lessons he learned from his family's business, where we worked full-time through college while studying at the University of Pittsburgh.
He is an LPL Financial-registered representative with V&T Wealth Advisors. With more than 20 years of financial services experience, Tom leads the firm's financial and investment planning services.
Previously, Tom served as an Agency Director of Financial Education for MetLife, a global provider of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs. He has presented financial education workshops to local, regional and national employers, from manufacturers and clothing retailers to large local universities.
He is a six-time Million Dollar Round Table qualifier, an active Financial Planning Association member and has qualified for other leadership conferences in the industry.
Tom lives in Hampton Twp., with his wife Laura, daughter Ava and two beagles. He enjoys playing golf, skiing and auto racing, and is committed to making a difference in his community, having served on the board for the "Hampton Alliance for Educational Excellence between 2015 and 2017.
- Financial Consultant
- A holder of Series 7 and 66 registrations through LPL Financial
Marc Mattarochia is devoted to engaging with his clients to empower them to make informed decisions with conviction to provide confidence in retirement.
As an LPL Financial-registered representative with V&T Wealth Advisors, in Wexford Pennsylvania, he views his ongoing relationship with clients who enjoy their retirement as the most rewarding part of his job.
He began his career in the financial services industry in 2004, when he represented a local mutual fund firm by helping hundreds of brokers across the country with investment planning for their clients. He started his own practice in 2009, heading his agency class in each of his first four years as a financial advisor.
As an independent financial advisor at LPL Financial, he maintains the ability to offer objective investment advice, analysis and recommendations. He works closely with his clients to manage risk and transfer their wealth efficiently through life, disability, and long-term care insurance. Thanks to his personalized blend of investment and insurance experience, Marc can guide his clients through market cycles and different life-stages to pursue with their financial goals. He also does not shy away from consulting other professionals with legal and tax expertise to maximize planning efficiencies.
Marc is a graduate of Sewickley Academy and holds a bachelor's degree from Allegheny College. He and his wife Jennifer are the proud parents of Dominic and Dillon, and they are actively involved in their education and extracurricular activities. Marc also coaches youth baseball and basketball.
- Chartered Financial Consultant®
- Chartered Advisor for Senior Living®
- CASL® Conferred by The American College
- A holder of Series 6, 7, 63 and 65 registrations held through LPL Financial
Vincent Richtar oversees V&T Wealth Advisors' insurance and preservation strategies for clients. He has more than 24 years of experience and is a Chartered Financial Consultant® and Chartered Advisor for Senior Living®.
He focuses on life and disability insurance for both groups and individuals, and his clients include some of the region's top automotive franchises as well as numerous physicians with one of the region's largest healthcare providers.
Vince previously was the regional director of disability income for MetLife and qualified for over a dozen of its prestigious leadership conferences as one the firm's top producers. He presents on financial education topics and holds Series 6, 7, 63 and 65 registrations held through LPL Financial.
He is an active volunteer with St. Anne's Church in the Pittsburgh suburb of Castle Shannon.
Administrative Assistant
Helen Stamatakis has coordinated our relationships and managed the flow communication with our clients since 2014.
As an administrative assistant to our financial planning representatives, Helen enjoys making the paperwork as understandable as possible for each client. She's committed to return phone calls and emails promptly and to fulfill requests quickly.
Helen received her bachelor's degree in management information systems from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), after which she worked as a project coordinator for information systems at PNC Financial between 1986 to 1992. She took a leave of absence from the workforce to raise her five children and returned to PNC Financial's retail operations team in 2008 before joining MetLife as an administrative assistant in 2009.
At MetLife, Helen served a team of financial and insurance planners, and she focused on processing requests by clients for service on their accounts. She also was a lead trainer for an internal client database system used by the firm's financial representatives.
Over the years, Helen has been very active in the community, and currently is the chairperson for the Respect Life Committee at Holy Trinity Church in Robinson Township. She also has been a Girl Scouts leader, Boy Scouts Merit Badge counselor and Montour Friends for the Performing Arts board member. She enjoys biking, skiing and the outdoors in her spare time.
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C. Dean Mavrogianis
Phone: 1-724-765-0435
Fax: 1-724-759-7282
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Branch Operations Manager
- A holder of licenses for Life, Health, Property and Casualty Insurance
- FINRA Registrations 6, 7, 24, 26, 63 held through LPL Financial
- LPL Registered Principal
Dean Mavrogianis retired from MetLife in 2015, after more than 34 years of service in the Greater Pittsburgh area. He re-entered the workforce a year later when he joined V&T Wealth Advisors to contribute to the firm's client-centric planning approach and their commitment to their clients.
With most of the V&T Wealth Advisors-team having crossed paths with MetLife earlier in their careers, Dean has known the entire V&T Wealth Advisors team for years and views them as family. He started his career there in 1981 and built his practice by providing financial guidance and investment strategies to individuals through a customized approach of recommending savings and retirement options, investment services, and insurance products.
In December 1998, he became a Functional Manager responsible for the training needs of local representatives and staff while maintaining strong relationships with his clients. Five years later Dean transitioned to the role of Training Director, and he eventually progressed to the position of Resource Manager, directing the overall business relationships with regionalized support departments and aligning resources to help meet MetLife's objectives.
Dean is a graduate of Robert Morris University and resides in Moon Twp., PA with his wife Melissa and daughter Alexa. He is also the President of the Western PA Field Veterans Association. In his spare time, Dean enjoys repurposing old wooden pallets or scrap wood from old furniture and likes taking short trips to neighboring communities to see what their antique stores have to offer. He also enjoys eating out at non-chain restaurants with his family.
Douglas Beatty
Douglas Beatty
LPL Financial Advisor
- Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU)®
- Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)®
- Certified in Long Term Care (CLTC)
- A holder of licenses for Life, Accident & Health Insurance
- LPL Investment Advisor Representative
Douglas Beatty has been a financial services professional since 1972 and has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
He worked with MetLife and MetLife Securities before transitioning his practice to V&T Wealth Advisors, LLC, and LPL Financial. Doug's education and training included becoming a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU)®, Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)® and Certified in Long Term Care (CLTC)®. He is an LPL registered representative and is licensed for Life, Accident and Health Insurance with multiple carriers in addition to being an Investment Advisor Representative (IAR) with LPL.
Doug and his wife Debbie are longtime residents of Pleasant Hills, PA and they are members of the Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church, where Doug has been an ordained Deacon and Elder.
Raising three children in the same community, and now enjoying six grandchildren, Doug has participated in many sports coaching positions while Debbie was a treasurer for many of those activities − track, soccer, football and band parent's organizations.
Thomas Uram
Thomas Uram
Financial Representative
- Series 6 & 63 held through LPL Financial
- Life, Accident & Health License
Thomas J. Uram is a 30 year veteran of the financial services industry. As an LPL financial representative, he specializes in charitable giving, life insurance, long-term care and IRA's for his clients.
He is a lifetime resident of Western Pennsylvania. A 1982 graduate of the University of Kentucky with a degree in Business and Finance, Tom is an avid numismatist. He has been an active member of the Numismatic Association since the 1970s and is a certified ANA Exhibit Judge.
Tom has served as the District Governor for Rotary District 7330, and he's currently on the Board of Directors for the Washington Community Foundation and the Washington Hospital Foundation. Tom also serves on the Finance Committee for the Immaculate Conception Church, and he is the former Board President of the Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Tom and his wife, Lynn, reside in Eighty Four, PA.


text:
America's top identical twin celebrity illusionists, The Edwards Twins, are bringing their one of a kind entertainment, world renowned show, Twintastic, to the Los Angeles area from March 19th through the 29th for ten performances at the El Portal Theatre. The Edwards Twins will amaze with their realistic vocal and visual celebrity portrayals.
The twins, born and raised in Burbank, California, brothers Anthony and Eddie Edwards have been astounding audiences all over the world for more than twenty years with their realistic vocal and visual portrayal of some of the world's best-loved celebrities, from Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Elton John, and Cher to Pavarotti, Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga. The performances are slated for 8:00 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00 p.m.
These master illusionists have also opened for some of the most popular artists, including Michael Jackson, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart and U2, and they have received rave reviews from People Magazine "Flawless vocals and visuals," The Today Show on NBC "Extraordinary talent" and The Boston Globe, "These look-a-likes are startling and amazing."
"We are excited to be coming home with a show that will entertain the entire family," said Anthony Edwards, the act's producer and elder brother (by four minutes). "We truly hold our Southern California roots close to our hearts."
The Edwards Twins are committed to bringing authenticity to each performance and have over 100 superstars in their repertoire. Though the sound mesmerizes the audience, it's the extravagant designer costumes and elaborate make-up that add to the magic. Anthony's natural tenor morphs from a raspy Neil Diamond to an accented Elton John. Eddie, who performs all the show's female characters, transforms himself using tricks learned from top Hollywood make-up artists – in the tradition of Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire and Eddie Murphy's Mother and Grandma Klump – to deliver Barbra Streisand's warm soprano notes, Cher's intricate outfits and Tina Turner's leggy strut in a manner that flatters his childhood idols.
"Our show was born out of a childhood fascination with celebrities," says Anthony Edwards. "When we were very young, we would listen to our parents' records and found out very early that we had a tremendous gift for mimicking the superstars, so much that now when we perform, people leave feeling like they were watching the actual stars on stage."
Tickets start at $39 and are available in advance by calling the ticket office at 818/508-4200 or online at www.elportaltheatre.com. Tickets will also be available at the door. The El Portal Theatre is located at 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.
For more information visit: The Edwards Twins


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