From Jezreel to Horeb - Prophets and Kings - Chapter 12

Frailty of Man

Job 14
King James Version (KJV)


1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

3 And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

6 Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

16 For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

18 And surely the mountains falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.

19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.


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Job 14

1Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

² He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

³ And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

⁵ Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

⁶ Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

⁷ For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

⁸ Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

⁹ Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

¹⁰ But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

¹¹ As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

¹² So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

¹³ O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴ If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

¹⁵ Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

¹⁶ For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

¹⁷ My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

¹⁸ And surely the mountains falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.

¹⁹ The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

²⁰ Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

²¹ His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

²² But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.
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NEWS MEDIA

NBC News Hires Chelsea Clinton: Is There a Case for Nepotism?

By JAMES PONIEWOZIK | @poniewozik | November 14, 2011

CRAIG RUTTLE / AP

Chelsea Clinton speaks during a session at the Clinton Global Initiative on September 22, 2011 in New York.

Across America, families are wracked with doubts about whether the next generation will ever be able to enjoy the opportunities afforded to their parents. But as it turns out, there’s still hope for you, Young America! You can have the opportunities your parents did, and even some they may never have dreamed of. As long as your parents are really, really famous.

This, anyway, is the experience of Chelsea Clinton, the 31-year-old former First Daughter, who will be joining celebrity offspring Jenna Bush, Meghan McCain and Luke Russert as an employee of NBC News. Reports the New York Times, Clinton will work on “Making a Difference,” NBC’s series of pieces on volunteerism. At least, until the former hedge-fund employee and IAC board member tires of her job and seeks another. Maybe she would like yours!

The announcement has already stirred a fair amount of snide reaction from other, non-American-royalty members of the media. The St. Petersburg Times’ Eric Deggans dubbed NBC the “Nepotism Broadcasting Network.” Glenn Greenwald of Salon sarcastically hailed “America’s meritocratic, watchdog news media.” Erik Wemple of the Washington Post noted that Clinton accepted a job as a journalist, yet is refusing to be interviewed about it, a stance he calls “hypocritical and intolerable.”

As someone who grew up in a rented house, not the White House, with parents whose connections to politics and media consisted of my Dad yelling at the NBC Nightly News, I’m annoyed that Clinton should get a job for having famous parents. All of which is compounded by NBC’s mealymouthed refusal to say that that’s essentially what this was. NBC News President Steve Capus told the Times, “It’s not about Chelsea Clinton saying, ‘Here I am; I want to be a TV star.’” Rather, “Mr. Capus said an intermediary contacted him in July with word that ‘she was kicking around what she wanted to do next.’”

See, it wasn’t about Clinton telling NBC to make her a TV star. It was about her intermediary telling NBC to make her a TV star. If you haven’t had this kind of luck, maybe your intermediaries just need to step up their game!

So, OK. However capable she is, Chelsea Clinton’s newest career turn is not, by any reasonable definition of the word, fair. She is starting a job she simply would not have were she not famous. But is that in itself a reason she should not be hired?

I have no idea whether Clinton will be any good at her job as TV correspondent. Quite possibly she won’t. But all other things being equal, fame—earned or inherited, deserved or not—quite simply is often an asset for an interviewer. People will sometimes talk to a famous person on camera because they recognize them and there’s an element of comfort. Famous people will sometimes more readily open up to other famous people, either because they have a connection, or because they believe the celebrity (or child or celebrity) knows what it’s like.

George Stephanopoulos, for instance, came to ABC from being a Clinton operative and White House communications director; a job related to journalism, perhaps, but not exactly working his way up covering the police beat. But his contacts earned in politics were undoubtedly an asset. Journalists and interviewers who start out anonymous but become famous can find that fame is a force multiplier; Oprah Winfrey worked her way up, for instance, but once famous, she could get celebrities to open up on her couch because she was Oprah, a peer, someone who gets it. Luke Russert, meanwhile, should be under no illusions that he would have his job were his last name Kowalski; but favoritism or no, he did end up having one of the most politically notorious interviews of this year, with Anthony Weiner and his “certitude.”

Don’t get me wrong: I find the idea of someone landing a plum career opportunity mainly because of who her parents are absolutely galling. I would hope most people do, at least on some level; we may not agree on much in America, but I would hope a country that was born out of rejecting a monarchy still has a healthy sense of disgust at people getting jobs because of who their parents are (common as it may be). But I have to at least accept that Clinton could end up surprising me and being good at this job, and for reasons that are not entirely fair.

And if she washes out? I just hope her backup career ambition is not newsmagazine TV critic.

Source: http://entertainment.time.com/2011/11/14/nbc-news-hires-chelsea-clinton-is-there-a-case-for-nepotism/#ixzz1djRwjwa4

Respect for Life?

The Editors | SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

Religion, in a variety of ways, has moved to the forefront of the Republican primary campaigns. The list of candidates includes several Protestant evangelicals, two Mormons and two Catholics. On “life” issues, all of these candidates proclaim themselves to be anti-abortion; but Catholic teaching emphasizes an extensive range of life issues beyond abortion—from stem cell research to hospital care to opposition to torture and to the death penalty. Among the candidates, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is the one who in his speeches and writing has most publicly identified himself with Jesus Christ. At the same time, although most politicians support the death penalty, Mr. Perry’s record stands out for its severity.

Governor Perry has overseen the execution of 234 persons in 11 years, more than any other governor in modern history. And he is proud of this. “If you don’t support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don’t come to Texas,” he once wrote. He vetoed a bill that would have spared the mentally retarded and criticized a Supreme Court decision that ruled out executing juveniles. His most controversial decision was to allow the execution in 2004 of Cameron Todd Willingham, who had been convicted of killing his three daughters in 1991 by burning down his own house. An independent investigator concluded that the initial examination of the fire was based on junk science and shoddy techniques and that Willingham could not be guilty. But when the investigator presented the report to Governor Perry, he ignored it and allowed the execution to proceed that very day.
That is not the moral or religious leadership expected of a president.

Family Matters

In advance of Hurricane Irene, government officials began using an unfamiliar phrase to describe preparations for the storm. Press releases distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency highlighted the “Federal Family’s Preparation and Response.” On Aug. 28 Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, announced that “the entire federal family is working as one to support the affected states.”
The administration’s critics were quick to respond. Ed Henry, the White House correspondent for Fox News, tweeted: “Branding alert: Interesting how WH dropped word ‘government’...calling it ‘federal family.’” “If my ‘family’ was $14 trillion in debt I’d put myself up for adoption,” Michelle Malkin sneered. The phrase may be part of a re-branding campaign, but it is not new. Both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush used the term at different times. Even the now infamous Michael D. Brown, the director of FEMA in 2004, referred to the “federal family” in remarks before Hurricane Katrina.

Catholics know, of course, that the government is not a family and cannot pretend to be one. Pope Benedict XVI recently reiterated the church’s teaching that family and marriage are the foundation of society. Yet sometimes, especially in times of emergency, the nuclear family needs support. That support can come from the church or other charitable institutions, but also from the government. For some people—elderly widows, abused children, the disabled—public institutions are the only entities that can provide the help they need. This simple but contentious fact was confirmed in the wake of Hurricane Irene, when government workers played an essential role in rescue and recovery. Call them family, neighbors or civil servants; the name does not matter. What matters is that they were there.

An iBishop?

On Aug. 24 Steve Jobs announced his resignation as the chief executive officer of Apple Inc., which he co-founded in the 1970s. Much laudatory commentary followed. Mr. Jobs changed the world of movies and music and books. He did not supply new plots and images but changed how the people watched what they wanted to see. He did not compose new tunes and lyrics but changed how the world received, stored and played music. He did not write new books but changed how the world read and kept and reread those books. The entrenched music and publishing industries felt threatened and resisted but eventually came around, seeing that Mr. Jobs was ultimately working with them.
“Mr. Jobs did not so much see around corners; he saw things in plain sight that others did not,” wrote David Carr in The New York Times. Steve Jobs saw what modern people wanted before they knew they wanted it. And he knew how to make it available and attractive. The Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York is open 24 hours a day.

One hears that young people want what the church has to offer, but they cannot find it in that church. The delivery system fails. Imagine a Bishop Steve Jobs. What would his diocese—the Diocese of Appleton, perhaps—look like? How would entrenched interests react to his challenge? What is out there in plain sight that he would see and point out to fellow church leaders? How would he change not the message, not the content, not the words but the delivery system? The human side of the church could use the energy of new vision.

Source

Birthdays and Baal Worship

August 30, 2010 by Sabbath Sermons

By Christine Godfrey

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Only Three Birthday Parties Are Mentioned In the Scriptures

1. And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. Genesis 40:20

2. But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Matthew 14:6

…looking forward to the royal birthday, which she [Herodias] knew would be an occasion of gluttony and intoxication. 2SP 76

3. And his sons went and feasted [in their] houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

And it was so, when the days of [their] feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings [according] to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Job 1:4-5.

Is there any significance attached to the fact that Jesus gave no example of celebrating his birthday? The only examples in scripture of Birthday celebrations are of two men that were directly opposed to God. That’s what got me wondering in the light of the words from Corinthians that all these things were examples for us upon whom the ends of the world are come. How sad it would be if I as professed follower of Christ read and studied these stories and failed to apply these things to my lives and when Jesus comes in the clouds of heaven hear His voice say to me. I never knew you.

Read more

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If a man die, shall he live again?

Job 14

1Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

3And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

6Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

7For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

10But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

11As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

12So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

13O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

14If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

15Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

17My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

18And surely the mountains falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.

19The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

21His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

22But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.


King James Version (KJV)

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Police: 3 people shot at St. Louis factory

January 7, 2010 10:18 a.m. EST

A spokesman for ABB Inc. confirms there was a shooting at the St. Louis, Missouri, plant.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: No info so far to indicate shooter was an employee, company spokesman says
Police surround building near factory; factory evacuated, company says
Shooter was armed with assault rifle; shooter's location unknown, say police

RELATED TOPICS

Shootings

St. Louis

(CNN) -- Three people have been shot at a transformer manufacturing facility in St. Louis, Missouri, police said Thursday.

St. Louis police said they did not know the location of the shooter, who they said was armed with an assault rifle. Police said they have surrounded a nearby building.

"It's pretty sketchy at this point," ABB spokesman Bob Fesmire told CNN. He said police had evacuated the building.

KSDK: Police search for shooter, additional victims

A 911 call was made to police about 6:30 a.m., Fesmire said.

Normally, there are about 100 employees inside the facility, but because of heavy snow, some of them likely were unable to reach work, he added.

He said there was no information so far to indicate that the shooter was an employee.

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Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/01/07/factory.shootings/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

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Job's Security

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:

And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Job 19:25-27.