Romans 15. Bear each others’ burdens, look at Christ and glorify God together. The Apostle Paul had proclaimed the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, but he really longed to visit Rome.
Job 15. Eliphaz unloaded on Job, accusing him of folly.
Job 16. Job replied: You pitiless comforters, you call yourself friends.
Taking a knee can refer to
This seems to have taken root in the Olympics this year, where both the U.S. and the Swedish women soccer team took a knee before the start of the game. The question is, do they even know what they were aligning themselves with in so doing?
Being a Christian myself I always came to think of the little chorus we sang from time to time during worship: (The words are an abbreviated paraphrase from Philippians 2:6-11)
The other image that is forever ingrained in my memory was when my wife and I were waiting for our daughter to come back from a few months in Sweden. We were standing outside the International arrivals building in Philadelphia when we heard a scream and a rather good looking black woman in her twenties came running out the door like she was pursued. Then she suddenly stopped, took a knee, went down on both knees, bent all the way down and kissed the ground and said in a strong but not loud voice, Thank you, God, thank you God. Then she rose up, and as we looked startled at her, she smiled at us and was gone. This was 30 years ago.
Romans 14. Some are weak in faith and those who are strong and can eat everything should not look down on vegetarians and vegans. Some observe the Lord’s day on the first day of the week, others still say “Sabbath is Sabbath.” Tolerate each other according too the law of liberty, for whatever is not of faith is sin, and it is not for you to judge. The law of love tells us not to flaunt one’s free drinking in front of an alcoholic among other things, for that could cause him to stumble.
Job 12. Job had heard enough and answered his critics.
Job 13. Job continued answering his three friends, and added a despondent prayer that contains this gem: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”
Job 14 contains the rest of Job’s prayer.
The goal of the Transcontinental Aqueduct is to save Lake Mead, save the American Southwest from becoming a desert, provide Hydroelectric peak storage for Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, provide sweet Mississippi water for irrigation, provide water to the Colorado river so it again can reach the ocean, revitalize San Carlos lake, provide more and better drinking water to 30 million people, to name just a few benefits.
The cost is substantial. The biggest problem is that the aqueduct must be substantially completed at full capacity before any benefits from the water will materialize. The cost to bring the aqueduct to half capacity is 300.5 billion dollars in construction cost only. This includes the cost of half the pumps or generators needed for full capacity, but not the cost of the power plants. Add to this the cost of filling the aqueduct and the 11 dams. The aqueduct itself will contain 1 million acre-ft of water when filled, the 11 dams will contain about 800,000 acre-ft when half full. To pump 1.8 MAF an average of 5000 feet requires about 10 TWh, when losses are included. Th filling stage water will be pumped, using excess wind and solar power at bargain rates, about 4 c/kwh , the same as the LFTR will produce when fully installed. This is about 320 million dollars in “liquid investment” The electric cost of moving one acre-ft from the Mississippi to the Colorado River is 6 MWh. This power is initially bought from off-peak wind and solar power, but as the aqueduct is completed with true hydropower storage up more and more the power will be generated with 100 MW LFTR power plants, the hydropower storage will be filled with excess wind and solar power.
In short: assuming a 50 year amortization plan for the aqueduct, and money available at 2%, , it will cost 12.5 billion a year in capital cost to deliver 7.5 MAF water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado river or any point in between, or $1,670 per acre-ft. Add to that $240 for electricity and another $50 per acre-ft in overhead and maintenance, the cost will be $1960 per acre-ft
When the aqueduct is fully built up, it will cost $13.4 billion yearly in capital cost to deliver 14.5 MAF of water from the Mississippi River to the Colorado river or any point in between, or $ 925 per acre-ft. The other costs stay the same, so the total cost of water will be $ 1,215 per acre-ft.
I have not yet mentioned the other major benefit of the Transcontinental Aqueduct. If I wanted the lowest cost of water possible, I would have used the lower route, going through the Texas lowlands to El Paso before routing it through New Mexico and Arizona. I routed it through the high and dry parts of Texas and New Mexico, at extra altitude penalty. The intent is to provide Hydropower storage at select places. These places are ideal for wind and solar power, but they need to store the energy when the sun is not up or doesn’t shine, or the wind doesn’t blow. Right now that is provided by coal and natural gas. Conventional nuclear power is best for use as base power only, so this transcontinental aqueduct will provide up to 23 GW of pure hydropower storage for 5 hours a day, but the LFTR nuclear stations providing the energy pumping the water in the aqueduct will shut off the pumps for five hours a day, or when the need arises, and instead provide another 20 GW of virtual hydropower power.
These 43 GW of hydropower capacity will be as follows: Louisiana, 0.4 GW; Texas, 18,5 GW (right now, Texas has no hydropower storage, but plenty of wind power); New Mexico, 10.5 GW; Arizona 13.6 GW. In Addition, when the Transcontinental Aqueduct is fully built up, the Hoover dam can provide a true 2.2 GW hydrostorage poser by pumping water back from Lake Mojave, a 3 billion dollar existing proposal waiting to be realized once Lake Mead is saved.
The amount of installed hydroelectric power storage is:
Most hydroelectric pumped storage was installed in the 70’s. Now natural gas plants provide most of the peak power. This aqueduct will double, triple the U.S. pumped peak storage if virtual peak storage is included. By being pumped from surplus wind and solar energy as well as nuclear energy it is true “Green power”. Some people like that.
Romans 13. Paul reminded the Romans of all people to submit to government, follow the laws, pay their taxes and debts, love their neighbor and put on Christ. Any government is better than anarchy.
Job 9. Job: There is no mediator, no one is righteous before God, even though I am righteous.
Job 10. Job: I would Plead with God.
Job 11. It was time for Zophar the Naamathite to speak. He urged Job to repent.
Romans 12:9-21. Paul reminds us to behave like Christians (little Christs), act in love, bless those who persecute you and overcome Evil with Good.
Job 6. Time for Job to reply: “My Complaint is Just.” And
Job 7. “My Suffering is without Comfort.”
Job 8. Bildad, the Shuhite replied: “Job Should Repent.”
Psalm 64, of David. The enemy has arrows and shoots at the man who prays for God’s protection. But God has arrows too, and He hits his targets. The righteous shall be glad and trust in the LORD.
Romans 12:1-8. Paul reminds us that we shall offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, serve God with the spiritual gifts He has given us, do it as members of one spiritual body.
Job 5. Job has sinned, and for that Job is chastened by God.
Psalm 63, of David. Seek God early, praise Him, this is better than life, praise Him.
Romans 11. Israel’s Rejection is not total, but because of their rejection of the Gospel, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Israel’s Rejection is not fatal, all Israel will be saved according to Scripture. The chapter ends with a Doxology, if you are in the habit of memorizing Scripture, this would be a good passage to memorize
Job 4. Job’s friend Eliphaz was first to speak: Job has sinned –
Romans 10. Paul claimed that Israel too needs the Gospel, “ if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” It is true in the Gospel, that “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,” but Israel rejected the Gospel.
Job 2. Satan Attacked Job’s Health, and then Job was visited by three friends, keeping him company for a week without saying a word.
Job 3. Job deplored his birth speaking to his his three friends, and they still kept quiet.
Romans 9. After the glorious chapter 8 Paul turned his attention to Israel and their rejection of Christ, they are after all God’s Sovereign Choice and the Children of Promise. God administers justice as he seed fit: “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” and Israel’s unbelief was “Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”
Job 1. This is the oldest book in the Bible and predates even the Pentateuch. It is written in old Aramaic. Job and his Family lived in in Uz, righteous before God. Satan attacked Job’s Character and as a result Job lost his property and his children.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 