In between the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and his first letter to Timothy we read two Psalms.
September 14: Psalm 104, Psalm 105 (click on the chapter to begin reading).
Psalm 104. God is Lord of all creation. He is worthy of all praise. Let us count the ways.
Psalm 105. God is faithful to His Covenant people, and retells the account of what He did for the Hebrews from Abraham to the wanderings in the wilderness.
In between the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and his first letter to Timothy we read one chapter of Proverbs and two chapters if Jeremiah.
September 13: Proverbs 15, Jeremiah 3, Jeremiah 4 (click on the chapter to begin reading).
Proverbs 15, Proverbs of Solomon. Solomon speaks of the value of following the LORD and the pursuit of righteousness and virtue as opposed to folly, pride and wickedness, all of which God hates.
Jeremiah 3. Israel was shamelessly unfaithful, yet God was merciful and called Israel to repent and return to the LORD.
Jeremiah 4. God made one final call for Israel to repent, but, and this is the prophecy, there would be an imminent invasion and the nation was to be doomed.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1)
The original location where the iron cross was found.
For Muslims, atheists and humanists the cross is an offense since it is to them the stench of death. But to us who believe it is the symbol of redemption and new and eternal life in Christ. If they were not pricked in their hearts when they see the cross they would not be offended.
He died on the cross at Ground Zero.
We have only one risen hero.
But the fools reject grace,
stay condemned, cannot face
The truth in The Cross at Ground Zero.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (St. John 3:16-17)
An intermediate location for the cross
The final place for the Iron cross near the 9/11 museum.
These were the final words of Governor Sarah Palin after a successful week anchoring “On Point” with the One America News.
Governor Palin is a true servant. Her parents, Chuck and Sally Heath, worked at the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island, New York in January and February 2002 as part of a federal Department of Agriculture program.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Heath said he and his wife had worked to keep sea gulls and rats from scavenging the human remains in the debris. Mr. Heath, then 70, a retired science teacher, and Mrs. Heath, then 68, a retired secretary, had worked for the Agriculture Department for 15 years. They travel around the world dealing with “nuisance” animals like rats and bears.
“A lot of people just didn’t like the job, it was kind of a morbid thing,” he said of the work at the landfill. “But I thought it was part of history.”
This is the attitude of a servant.
On April 16 2019 at the church of Notre Dame in Paris there was a fire. Much was lost.
“Art and architecture have a unique ability to help 
us connect across our differences and bring people together in important ways,” posted U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. “Thinking of the people of Paris and praying for every first responder trying to save this wonder.”
No, Ms Omar, it is much more than that, rather
What nearly destroyed Notre Dame;
historical artworks for some.
Not the fall of the steeple,
God’s church is the people
the Cross stands for all who will come.
Yes, the fire was spectacular.
Yes, the cross still stands as it did when, as U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar so famously quoted “Somebody did something at 9/11”
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 53:1)
In between the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and his first letter to Timothy we read one Psalm and the first two chapters of Jeremiah.
September 12: Psalm 103, Jeremiah 1, Jeremiah 2 (click on the chapter to begin reading).
Psalm 103, of David. There are many songs of praise in the Bible. This is probably the purest of them all. It combines God’s mercifulness and our shortcomings, His healing power and our frailty and above all our very limited life here on earth and the eternity of God.
Jeremiah 1, the call of Jeremiah. The key word in Jeremiah’s call is “before“. Here God confirmed His call with two visions, the branch of an almond tree and a boiling pot tilting away from the north. These were promises of the fulfillment of God’s word and of an impending disaster. God finally assured Jeremiah He will be with him, so don’t worry.
Jeremiah 2. Israel had forsaken the LORD, and God presented His case against Israel.
In between the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and his first letter to Timothy we read two Psalms and the last chapter of Isaiah.
September 11: Psalm 101, Psalm 102, Isaiah 66 (click on the chapter to begin reading).
Psalm 101, of David. A song of praise and a vow that reads like a new year’s resolution.
Psalm 102. A penitential psalm. It recalls the great deeds and miracles God did for His people in the wilderness, and how they disobeyed and turned to idols, even to the point of child sacrifice. In spite of this God is still merciful and there is still hope. It ends with a Hallelujah!
Isaiah 66 speaks of judgement and hope, and true and false worship. Yet, the LORD will vindicate Zion; “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream“. Finally, God via Isaiah wraps up the scroll with a description of the Day of the LORD and its sobering aftermath.
Today we read the last chapter of the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and two chapters of Isaiah.
September 10: 2 Thessalonians 3, Isaiah 64, Isaiah 65 (click on the chapter to begin reading).
2 Thessalonians 3. The Apostle Paul requested prayer, then he warned against idleness. Finally the letter ends with a benediction.
Isaiah 64. A prayer of petition and penance: “All our righteousness are as filthy rags”
Isaiah 65 is rich. It tells of judgment and salvation, the new creation and the new Jerusalem.
As CO2 warms up the poles
burned oil, gas and coal play their roles.
CO2 is still good;
makes plants green, grows more food,
and clouds are the climate controls.
We live in interesting times, the CO2 concentration has increased 50% since the beginning of industrialization. In the last 30 years the level has risen 17%, from about 350 ppm to nearly 410 ppm. This is what scares people. Is is time to panic and stop carbon emissions altogether as Greta Thunberg has suggested?As if on cue the climate models have been adjusted, and they suddenly show a much higher rate of temperature increase, in this case what is supposed to happen to global temperatures for a doubling of CO2 from pre-industrial times, from 270ppm to 540ppm.
There are two ways to approach this problem. The models make certain assumptions about the behavior of the changing atmosphere and model future temperature changes. This is the approach taken by IPCC for the last 32 years. These models are all failing miserably when compared to actual temperature changes.
The other way i to observe what is actually happening to our temperature over time as the CO2 increases. We have 50 years of excellent global temperature data, so with these we can see where, when and by how much the earth has warmed.
The most drastic temperature rise on earth has been in the Arctic above the 80th latitude. In the winter of 2019 it was 4C above the 50 year average. See charts from the Danish Meteorological Institute:
Note, there is no increase at all in the summer temperatures!
The fall temperature saw an increase of 4C and the spring temperature saw an increase of about 2.5C.
Notice: In this chart the there is no recorded summer temperature increase at all, but the onset of fall freezing was delayed by 3 weeks.
The 5 thru 8C winter rise of temperature is significant, most would even say alarming, but my response is, why is that?
To get the answer we must study molecular absorption spectroscopy and explain a couple of facts for the 97% of all scientists who have not studied molecular spectroscopy. IPCC and most scientists claim that the greenhouse effect is dependent on the gases that are in the atmosphere, and their combined effect is additive according to a logarithmic formula. This is true up to a certain point, but it is not possible to absorb more than 100% of all the energy available in a certain frequency band! For example: If water vapor absorbs 50% of all incoming energy in a certain band, and CO2 absorbs another 90% of the energy in the same band, the result is that 95% is absorbed, (90% + 50% * (100% – 90%)), not 140%, (90% + 50%).
The following chart shows both CO2 and H2O are absorbing greenhouse gases, with H20 being the stronger greenhouse gas, absorbing over a much wider spectrum, and they overlap for the most part. But it also matters in what frequency range s they absorb.
For this we will have to look at the frequency ranges of the incoming solar radiation and the outgoing black body radiation of the earth. It is the latter that causes the greenhouse effect. Take a look at this chart:
The red area represents the observed amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth’s surface, the white area under the red line represents radiation absorbed in the atmosphere. Likewise, the blue area represents the outgoing black body radiation that is re-emitted. The remaining white area under the magenta, blue or black line represents the retained absorbed energy that causes the greenhouse effect.
Let us now take a look at the Carbon Dioxide bands of absorption, at 2.7, 4.3 and 15 microns. Of them the 2.7 and 4.3 micron bands absorb where there is little black body radiation, the only band that is of interest is at 15 microns, and that is in a band where the black body radiation has its maximum. However it is also in a band where water vapor also absorb, not as much as CO2,only about 20% to 70% as much. Water vapor or absolute humidity is highly dependent on the temperature of the air, so at 30C there may be 50 times as much water vapor, at 0C there may be ten times as much water vapor, and at -25C there may be more CO2 than water vapor. At those low temperatures the gases are mostly additive. In the tropics with fifty times more water vapor than CO2, increased CO2 has no influence on the temperature whatsoever. Temperature charts confirm this assertion:
Here the temperature in the tropics displays no trend whatsoever. It follows the temperature of the oceans, goes up in an El Niño and down in a La Niña. The temperature in the southern hemisphere shows no trend. In the northern temperate region there is a slight increase, but the great increase is occurring in the Arctic. There is no increase in the Antarctic yet even though the increase in CO2 is greater in the Antarctic and the winter temperature in the Antarctic is even lower than in the Arctic. So CO2 increase cannot be the sole answer to the winter temperature increase in the Arctic.
There is an obvious answer. When temperatures increase the air can contain more moisture and will transport more moisture from the tropics all the way to the arctic, where it falls as snow. Is the snow increasing in the Northern Hemisphere?
Let us see what the snow statistics show. These are from the Rutgers’ snow lab.
The fall snow extent is increasing, and has increased by more than 2 percent per year.
The winter
snowfall has also increased but only by 0.04 percent per year. The snow covers all of Russia, Northern China, Mongolia, Tibet, Kashmir and northern Pakistan, Northern Afghanistan, Northern Iran, Turkey, Part of Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska, Greenland and part of Western and Northern United States.
In the spring on the other hand the snow pack is melting faster, about 1.6 percent less snow per year. One of the major reasons for an earlier snow-melt is that the air is getting dirtier, especially over China, and to some extent Russia. The soot from burning coal and mining and manufacturing changes the albedo of the snow. The soot is visible on old snow all the way up to the North Pole. The other reason is that the poles are getting warmer. In the fall and winter it is mostly due to increased snowfall, but in the spring, as soon as the temperature rises over the freezing point, melting occurs.
So the warming of the poles, far from being an impending end of mankind as we know it, may even be beneficial. Warmer poles in the winter means less temperature gradient between the poles and the tropics, leading to less severe storms. They will still be there, but less severe.
There is one great benefit of increased CO2, the greening of the earth.
Thanks to this greening, accomplished with only the fertilizing effect of CO2, the earth can now keep another 2 billion people from starvation, not to mention what it does to increase wild plants and wildlife. More vegetation also helps to combat erosion.
Having said that, I am still a conservationist. Coal, oil and gas will run out at some time, and I for one would like to save some for future generations, not yet born. In addition I would like to minimize the need for mining, which can be quite destructive to the environment.
The best solution is to switch most electricity generation to Thorium molten salt nuclear power. There are many reasons why this should be done as a priority.
Here are some of them:
The case for Thorium. 1. A million year supply of Thorium available worldwide.
The case for Thorium. 2. Thorium already mined, ready to be extracted.
The case for Thorium. 5. Thorium nuclear power is only realistic solution to power space colonies.
The case for Thorium. 7. Thorium based nuclear power is not suited for making nuclear bombs.
The case tor Thorium. 8. Produces isotopes that helps treat and maybe cure certain cancers.
The case for Thorium 13. Virtually no spent fuel problem, very little on site storage or transport.
The case for Thorium. 18. Russia has an active Thorium program.
The case for Thorium 20. China is having a massive Thorium program.
The case for Thorium. 21. United States used to be the leader in Thorium usage. What happened?
The case for Thorium. 23. With a Molten Salt Reactor, accidents like Chernobyl are impossible.
The case for Thorium. 24. With Molten Salt Reactors, a catastrophe like Fukushima cannot happen.
The case for Thorium. 25. Will produce electrical energy at about 4 cents per kWh.
Today we read the second chapter of the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and two chapters of Isaiah.
September 9: 2 Thessalonians 2, Isaiah 62, Isaiah 63 (click on the chapter to begin reading).
2 Thessalonians 2 tells of the great apostasy, when the man of lawlessness is revealed and usher in the tribulation. People will believe “The Lie” and be destroyed. Stand fast, Jesus will destroy him at his return.
Isaiah 62. Zion’s new name will be called Hephzibah and the land will be called Beulah, salvation is coming.
Isaiah 63. The day of the Lord’s vengeance is coming where “the grapes of wrath are trod” and there was no one to help. Then God will show His mercy and provide salvation, but will people listen?
“Sweden has gone from being the country with the most infections in Europe to the safest one”. As the rest of Europe and the world remains under the grip of draconian rules and the threat of new lockdowns, Sweden, which allowed its citizens to remain free throughout the entire pandemic, has pretty much declared victory over the coronavirus. The country now has one of the lowest infection rates on the planet, and it’s difficult not to admire how it has handled the past year, with no strict lockdown or compulsory face mask rules. All businesses, schools and public places remained open in Sweden for the duration.
“Sweden has gone from being the country with the most infections in Europe to the safest one,” Sweden’s senior epidemiologist Dr. Anders Tegnell commented to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “What we see now is that the sustainable policy might be slower in getting results, but it will get results eventually,” Tegnell clarified. “And then we also hope that the result will be more stable,” he added.
Tegnell previously warned that encouraging people to wear face masks is “very dangerous” because it gives a false sense of security but does not effectively stem the spread of the virus. “The findings that have been produced through face masks are astonishingly weak, even though so many people around the world wear them,” Tengell has urged.
Last week, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed Sweden’s drop in infection rate, with only 12 cases per million, compared to 18 in neighbouring Denmark and 14 in nearby Norway. At the peak of the Sweden’s outbreak, it was seeing 108 new infections per million people, as it pursued a “herd immunity” strategy.
The figures also show that out of 2500 randomly selected and tested people in Sweden, none tested positive, compared to 0.9 percent positive in April, and 0.3 percent in May. “We interpret this as meaning there is not currently a widespread infection among people who do not have symptoms,” said Karin Tegmark, deputy head of the Public Health Agency of Sweden.
When compared to the rest of Europe, Sweden’s death rate sits somewhere in the middle. However, officials are confident that playing the long game will see this improve drastically.
1. Italy 277,634 35,541 12.8%
2. United Kingdom 347,152 41,551 12.0%
3. Belgium 87,825 9,906 11.3%
4. France 324,777 30,724 9.5%
5. Netherlands 74,787 6,243 8.4%
6. Channel Islands 631 48 7.6%
7. Hungary 8,387 624 7.4%
8. Isle of Man 337 24 7.1%
9. Sweden 84,985 5,835 6,9%
This compares favorably with the seven day moving average as of September 7 of COVID-19 infection rate per million people for the rest of Europe:
France 105
Bosnia and Herzegovina 73
Spain 70
Croatia 64
Romania 63
Ukraine 55
Czechia 55
Belgium 42
Netherlands 41
Switzerland 40
Portugal 35
Austria 34
UK 30
Ireland 27
Denmark 27
Italy 21
Bulgaria 18
Greece 18
Germany 15
Poland 14
One country had a larger second wave than the first wave of cases, the waves have been completed and the current case rate for
Serbia is 9 daily cases per million people.
They may be close to herd immunity too.
Today we read the first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians and two chapters of Isaiah.
September 8: 2 Thessalonians 1, Isaiah 60, Isaiah 61 (click on the chapter to begin reading).
2 Thessalonians 1, After the customary greeting and prayer of thanksgiving, Paul dealt with God’s final judgment and God’s glory.
Isaiah 60. Arise, shine, for your light has come. Gross darkness covers the people. It tells of the glory of Zion and ends with a millennial prophecy of the New Jerusalem.
Isaiah 61. This is the year of the Lord’s favor. Jesus started his ministry finding this prophecy in the scroll of Isaiah and read it but stopped mid-sentence. It also gives “beauty for ashes” and proclaims the good news of salvation.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 
