March 14, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

The chapter for today out of the gospel of Mark deals with eating, praying, betrayal and denial – and don’t forget the rooster! The two chapters in Deuteronomy  deal with promises and warnings.

March 14: Mark 14, Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 8 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Mark 14 starts out in Bethany, where Jesus was anointed. The next day Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and predicted Peter’s denial. After Judas Iscariot left the eleven remaining disciples and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives where there is a garden called Gethsemane. While there Jesus Prayed intensely. Judas Iscariot reappeared and betrayed Jesus with a kiss. The accompanying soldiers arrested Jesus, and he was brought before the Sanhedrin. Peter was waiting outside and denied Jesus three times, after which the cock crowed twice.

Deuteronomy 7 promised that the Israelites are A Chosen People. God will drive out the people before them. When entering the land they must destroy completely all idols and false gods.

Deuteronomy 8. Remember the LORD your God but if not, you too will be destroyed.

March 13, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In today’s chapter of the gospel of Mark Jesus gives his final teachings before Passover and his crucifixion. The chapter in Deuteronomy lays out Moses’ instructions to the people.

March 13: Mark 13, Deuteronomy 6 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Mark 13.  Jesus told his disciples of the Signs of the End of the Age, the Great Tribulation, the Coming of the Son of Man, the lesson of the Fig Tree and the Day and Hour of his return, which shall remain unknown.

In Deuteronomy 6 Moses laid out The Greatest Commandment, he recommended the Israelites to wear phylacteries to keep them always in remembrance of the LORD and cautioned against disobedience.  It is surprising how many of New Testament references there are to the Old testament Law; some are listed here.

March 12, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today’s chapter from the gospel of Mark deals with Jesus teachings while being challenged, and the chapter of Deuteronomy deals with the Ten Commandments.

March 12: Mark 12, Deuteronomy 5 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Mark 12 begins with Jesus telling the parable of the unfaithful tenants, and after that the Pharisees tried to entrap Jesus with the question “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?” You know the answer, if not, check it and ponder. Then it was the Sadducees’ turn to entrap him with the question what happens to  marriage at the Resurrection. Jesus answered: “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”  Then Jesus answered the question: “What is the Greatest Commandment,” and answered the riddle “whose son is the Christ?” Finally, looking at temple offerings Jesus noticed the widow that gave her all, two mites.

In Deuteronomy 5 the Ten Commandments are enumerated a second time, the first time was in Exodus 20. The people were afraid of God’s presence, horrified but not in reverential fear.

March 11, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today there are only 2 chapters to read, the beginning of Holy Week in the gospel of Mark, and the conditional promise of entering into the promised land in Deuteronomy.

March 11: Mark 11, Deuteronomy 4 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Mark 11 starts what is called the Holy Week with the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Jesus entered, riding on an unbroken foal of a donkey. This was the sign. The next day Jesus cursed a fig tree (symbol of Israel) and cleared the Temple of the money-exchangers (You don’t want to give too much, you know). Following morning the fig tree was withered, and all marveled. Finally, Jesus authority was questioned by the religious authorities.

In Deuteronomy 4 God promised the people they will enter the promised land, but if they are disobedient they will be scattered all over the earth. Obedience means no idolatry “for the LORD, your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God”. Three Cities of Refuge are mentioned.

March 10, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today’s chapter in the gospel of Mark deals with marriage, salvation and servanthood. Then we read two historical chapters of Deuteronomy.

March 10: Mark 10, Deuteronomy 2, Deuteronomy 3 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

In Mark 10 Jesus explained the Christian concept of Marriage: One man, one woman, one lifetime,“6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Then  Jesus blessed the little children and said: “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.” A Rich Young Ruler asks what he must do to receive eternal life, but he cannot make himself do what Jesus required of him, so Jesus commented: ”It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The disciples were astounded and said: “Who then can be saved?” upon which Jesus answered “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Yes, that’s how it is with salvation. Jesus then  predicted his resurrection. James and John wanted to be great, but Jesus pointed out that greatness comes by serving. The chapter finally ends as Jesus healed Bartimaeus.

Deuteronomy 2 tells of the first 38 years of wandering in the the Desert, the generation entering the desert had died off, then with the help of God King Sihon was Defeated.

Deuteronomy 3 tells how King Og Defeated and the Israelites conquered the land East of Jordan, but Moses was forbidden to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land.

March 9, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today there are only one chapter of the gospel of Mark and the first chapter out of Deuteronomy.

March 9: Mark 9, Deuteronomy 1 (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Mark 9 begins with the Transfiguration and gives an explanation regarding Elijah, he had already come. Then a boy with an evil spirit was healed and the disciples asked Jesus why they could not drive out the evil spirit. He answered: “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” After that Jesus predicted his death and resurrection but the disciples did not understand, instead they argued among themselves who was the greatest. To give a perfect object lesson Jesus picked up a little child and explained what it means to be a servant of all. Jesus tought unity, not division, “whoever is not against us is for us,” and warnof of the dire consequences of offenses and told them to be “salt with savor” and be at peace with each other.

Deuteronomy 1 starts with the LORD’s command to leave Horeb and enter Canaan. Leaders were appointed and spies sent out, but Israel’s refused to enter the land. The penalty for Israel’s rebellion was that no one would enter the promised land except Caleb and Joshua.

March 8, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

In the reading for today Jesus in the chapter of the gospel of Mark Jesus is full of action, teaching and preparing the disciples for the future. The four chapters in Numbers is good historical reading.

March 8: Mark 8, Numbers 33, Numbers 34, Numbers 35, Numbers 36, (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Mark 8 begins with Jesus as he fed the four thousand, the Pharisees were still looking for a sign, but Jesus warned of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod, all very confusing for the disciples; they were still not thinking in the spiritual realm. Jesus healed a blind man at Bethsaida, then followed Peter’s Confession and  Jesus predicted his death.

Numbers 33 is a reciting of Israel’s Journey from Egypt, and provides instructions on how the Israelites were to conquer Canaan.

Numbers 34 defines the Boundaries of Canaan and mentions all the leaders appointed to divide the land.

Numbers 35 names the Cities for the Levites and defines the six Cities of Refuge.

Numbers 36 tells about the Inheritance of Zelophehad’s Daughters and why the Israelite women must marry within their tribe.

Climate change is real and positive for the environment. The real challenge is clean and available water in the 10-40 region.

The safe, clean water essential to all life is rapidly running out in much of the world. Yet the politicians are concentrating on air pollution in the form of CO2 and methane as if a catastrophe is about to hit us. Western US, most of the 10-40 window (the area between the 10th and the 40th latitude), Australia and western South America are using up its safe and drinkable water supply much faster than it is replenished. In addition, what is left is getting polluted.Let me give you an anecdotal example.

More than twenty years ago I was part of a team that made wet processing equipment for making computer chip wafers. It involved cleaning and etching using isopropyl alcohol, hydrocloric, sulphuric, and hydrofluoric acid as well as Ozone, all potent stuff. To collect the used chemicals we had designed a 5-way output port, so the chemicals could be collected separately after use. The equipment was made and shipped off to South Korea. It was assembled in a brand new, state of the art positive air pressure clean room facility. The processing machine was installed by the Koreans, but under the 5-way port was a large funnel, going to the drain and directly out in the sewer.

A couple of years before, in the US we had a valve in a similar machine that sprung a leak, so a small amount of hydrofluoric acid got discharged into the sewage. This poisoned the sewage processing plant, and a large fine was levied. No such worry in Asia. The sewage went directly out in the ocean to be diluted. How could they be persuaded not to dump the alcohol and acid directly into the sewage? There were no environmental regulations prohibiting them from doing so. The only argument that persuaded them was economic. It was cheaper to collect the used alcohol and hydrofluoric acid, clean and reuse it rather than dump it. Unfortunately sulphuric acid and hydrocloric acid was too cheap to buy new, so that was still dumped. This is the mindset of many developing countries.

In China many of these facilities are inland, so large water aquifers get poisoned for centuries to come. These are the people we up to now have entrusted with our future production of just about everything, since they do not have the environmental protection laws they can produce the stuff much cheaper. But it comes at a price. The yellow river now does not anymore reach the ocean for part of the year.

As I have explained in a previous post: https://lenbilen.com/2020/02/28/climate-change-is-real-and-is-caused-by-rising-co2-levels-leading-to-less-extreme-weather-this-is-on-balance-good-for-the-environment/  global warming is real, but it only occurs in temperate regions, and predominantly in the winter. Summertime maxima are actually decreasing slightly, so the net effect of climate change is that it is positive for the environment.

Not so with water pollution. It is a much bigger and dangerous problem, and only by shifting our attention to it and from CO2 can we begin to solve it. To clean up the environment will take a lot of energy, and the only solution I see is switching our electric energy supply away from fossil fuel and to Thorium based nuclear energy. Here are

Twenty-five reasons to rapidly develop Thorium based Nuclear Power generation.

We need badly to develop and build Thorium based molten salt fast breeder nuclear reactors to secure our energy needs in the future. Lest anyone should be threatened by the words fast breeder, it simply means it uses fast neutrons instead of thermal neutrons, and breeder means it produces more fissible material than it consumes, in the case of Thorium the ratio is about 1.05.

1. A million years supply at today’s consumption levels.

2. Thorium already mined, ready to be extracted.

3. One ten-thousandth of the TRansUranium waste compared to a U-235 based fast breeder reactor.

4. Thorium based nuclear power produces Pu-238, needed for space exploration.

5. Radioactive waste from an LFTR decays down to background radiation in 300 years compared to a million years for U-235 based reactors.

6. Thorium based nuclear power is not suited for making nuclear bombs.

7. Produces isotopes that helps cure certain cancers.

8. Molten Salt Thorium Reactors are earthquake safe.

9. Molten Salt Thorium Reactors cannot have a meltdown, the fuel is already molten.

10. Molten Salt Nuclear Reactors have a very high negative temperature coefficient leading to a safe and stable control.

11. Atmospheric pressure operating conditions, no risk for explosions.

12. Virtually no spent fuel problem, very little on site storage or transport.

13. Thorium Nuclear Power generators  scale  beautifully from small portable generators to full size power plants.

14. No need for evacuation zones, can be placed near urban areas.

15. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors will work both as Base Load and Load Following power plants.

16. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors will lessen the need for an expanded national grid.

17. Russia has an active Thorium program.

18. China is having a massive Thorium program.

19. India is having an ambitious Thorium program.

20. United States used to be the leader in Thorium usage. What happened?

21. With a Molten Salt Reactor, accidents like the Three Mile Island disaster will not happen.

22. With a Molten Salt Reactor, disasters like Chernobyl are impossible.

23. With Molten Salt Reactors, a catastrophe like Fukushima cannot happen.

24. Produces electrical energy at about 4 cents per KWh.

25. Can deplete some of the existing radioactive waste and nuclear weapons stockpiles.

March 7, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

Today there are four chapters to read.

March 7: Mark 7, Numbers 30, Numbers 31 , Numbers 32, (click on the chapter to begin reading)

Mark 7. Jesus explained what is clean and what is unclean. Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon and gave an  example of Great Faith: The Canaanite woman, and the healing of her daughter.  Then Jesus healed a deaf-mute man, and the people say: “He has done everything well.”

Numbers 30 is short, and it deals with what the Law says about vows.

Numbers 31. The Israelites executed vengeance on the Midianites, returned from the war and dividied the spoils.

Numbers 32, The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh decided to settle East of Jordan.

March 6, read through the Holy Bible in a year in Power-point, with comments.

The three chapters chosen for today’s reading is one chapter of Mark and two chapters in Numbers.

March 6: Mark 6, Numbers 28, Numbers 29, (click on the chapter to begin reading)

In Mark 6  Jesus proclaimed ”A Prophet is not without honor, but in his own hometown, and among his own kin.” Jesus sent out the Twelve, and they were amazed they could heal too. John the Baptist was beheaded. By the way – the name Salome is not in the Bible, we know it because beheading fascinates many. Then is retold the feeding of the Five Thousand, and after that Jesus walked on the water.

Numbers 28 is all about offerings, the Daily Offerings, Sabbath Offerings, Monthly Offerings, Offerings at Passover and Offerings at the Feast of Weeks.

In Numbers 29 the specifications for offerings continue, Offerings at the Feast of Trumpets, Offerings at the Day of Atonement and finally Offerings at the Feast of Tabernacles.