POPULARITY
12 episodes with 'according
2 episodes with 'according
2 episodes with 'according
2 episodes with 'according
2 episodes with 'according
2 episodes with 'according
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Enjoy this re-release with my guest, Brian Feroldi. Brian is a financial educator, author, speaker, creator, and YouTuber. Brian began investing in 2004. He had no idea what he was doing at first, but as his experience and knowledge of the stock market developed, his returns improved considerably. He enjoys assisting others in making better financial decisions, particularly with regard to investments. He joined us today to talk about his book, ‘Why Does the Stock Market Go Up?: Everything You Should Have Been Taught About Investing in School, But Weren't.'According to Brian, the most powerful time to start investing is when you are young. The more time that you have on your side, the more powerful the dollars that you are putting into the market. Brian shares the common investing mistakes people make and how to avoid making those mistakes.We explore the benefits and potential pitfalls of taking a company public and investing in mutual funds. Brian also dives into the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the creation of the S&P 500. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights into the world of finance.[02.54] US stock market – Starting the conversation, Brian explains why he addresses the US stock market as the greatest wealth-creation machine of all time in his book.[10.29] Selling ownership – We talk about how a corporation can raise money from investors by selling ownership in itself.[16.03] New York Stock Exchange - The largest stock market exchange in the world today.[23.15] IPO – Brian defines what an IPO is and how it interfaces with the stock market.[30.21] P/E ratio – Brian defines the Price to Earnings ratio and the macroeconomic factors that resulted in a high or low ratio in different time periods.[38.05] Benjamin Graham – Benjamin Graham invented the concept of value investing, influenced Warren Buffett[43.00] Compounding - The compounding of an investment leads to massive gains in wealth over time.[50.49] Mutual funds – Brian explains the reasons for the underperformance of mutual funds.[59.46] Financial advisor – We talk about the things people need to be looking out for if they are going to use a financial advisor. ResourcesConnect with Brian Website - brianferoldi.com/ LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/brianferoldi/ Instagram - instagram.com/brianferoldi/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@BrianFeroldiYTTwitter - twitter.com/BrianFeroldi Book by BrianWhy Does The Stock Market Go Up?: Everything You Should Have Been Taught About Investing In School, But Weren't Book by Robert T. KiyosakiRich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!Book by Terry SmithInvesting for Growth: How to make money by only buying the best companies in the world – An anthology of investment writing
George Rosenthal, co-owner, President and founder of ThrottleNet, joins Marc & Kim to discuss a recent service that car dealers use had been hacked, what this means for the consumer, and what could have been done to be prevented.
In this episode, Annie introduces the rebranding of her podcast from 'According to Annie' to 'Creatress of Freedom'. The concept of being a 'Creatress of Freedom' is about creating freedom in all aspects of life, including body, mind, spirituality, and relationships. Annie encourages listeners to tap into the unknown, have courageous conversations, and liberate themselves from societal expectations! Chapters In This Episode: 02:23The Evolution of the Creatress of Freedom 04:14 Defining the Creatress of Freedom 05:11 The Shift from Chasing Money to Finding Fulfillment 09:02 Living a Life of Freedom 11:47 Creating a Safe Space for Courageous Conversations Find more info & the application to apply for EVOLVE the Salon Mastermind, HERE! Get access to Ignite Your Salon here! Let's Stay Connected! Say Hi on Instagram, @creatressoffreedom! Follow along at the podcast's Instagram: @creatressoffreedom_podcast Free Facebook group for Salon Owners: Join Here Want to work together? Head to my website! Sign up for my weekly newsletter 'Queen News', here!
Explore the captivating journey of Larry Joe Campbell, a master of improvisation and comedy, known for his standout roles in "According to Jim," "The Orville," and more. From his early days in Michigan to his rise in Hollywood, Larry shares the stories behind his most iconic characters, his love for improvisation, and the personal moments that have shaped his career. Highlights Michigan Roots to Hollywood Stardom: Larry recounts his transition from playing with Star Wars figures to lighting up the stage and screen. Improvisation and Comedy: Insights into Larry's experiences with improvisation at Second City Detroit, and the contrast between stand-up comedy and improvisational theater. Iconic Roles and Behind-the-Scenes: From "According to Jim" to guest appearances on "Friends," Larry provides a glimpse into his career through memorable anecdotes. "Detroiters" and the Heart of Comedy: Larry delves into his guest role on "Detroiters," discussing the show's portrayal of the city's spirit and its comedy scene, alongside personal connections to the cast and crew. Adventures on "The Orville": Reflecting on his role as Chief Engineer Newton on "The Orville," Larry shares his experiences working with Seth MacFarlane and the unique blend of science fiction and humor the show presents. Life Beyond Acting: Exploring Larry's personal life, including the influence of his Michigan upbringing and his vision for future projects in writing and directing. Discover the resilience, creativity, and humor that have defined Larry Joe Campbell's journey in the entertainment industry. You're going to love my conversation with Larry Joe Campbell IMDB Instagram Cameo Twitter Follow Jeff Dwoskin (host): Jeff Dwoskin on Twitter The Jeff Dwoskin Show podcast on Twitter Podcast website Podcast on Instagram Join my mailing list Subscribe to my Youtube channel (watch Crossing the Streams!) Yes, the show used to be called Live from Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show Ways to support the show: Buy me a coffee (support the show) TeePublic Store: Classic Conversations merch and more! Love the books I talk about on the show? Here is my Amazon store to shop.
Television personality Bill Maher, renowned host on HBO and, put forth a spirited critique of the mainstream media's reporting on the potential 2024 presidential race during his most recent episode of 'Real Time with Bill Maher'. Certainly striking a chord, Maher admonished a 'painting with too broad a brush' approach to reporting, reiterating that 'Donald Trump is not equivalent to Adolf Hitler.' Maher chided the media, saying that the practice of constantly 'cranking the dial of rhetoric all the way up' must discontinue. He then proceeded to showcase an illustration of his point, using a clip of Fox News's Sean Hannity claiming, 'There's not a single aspect that hasn't deteriorated under Joe Biden.' Maher artfully countered this statement with a satirical quip indicating a certain mundane exaggeration in Hannity's remarks. Maher's sarcastic response, 'As if a slight increase in the price of Mars bars is equivalent to announcing the death of the American dream', served to repudiate the outlandish comment. With a humor-laced snarkiness designed to subtly undercut the hyperbolic impact, Maher drove home the point that not everything has gone from bad to worse under President Biden's reign. Continuing his satirical stretch, Maher playfully suggested, 'According to this logic, under Biden, even the flowers have lost their scent, internet speeds have slumped, and breakfast at IHOP has become stickier. Even our waning romance could be attributed to Biden, as if even the potency of the illegally circulating fentanyl has dipped.' Premised on remarking the repetition of doomsday language, Maher observed, 'It's wearisome to persistently listen to the same old criticisms regurgitated—criticisms that we know would be leveled regardless of the reality on the ground.' In this vein, Maher sought to demonstrate an innate bias in the often-repeated fractious assessments of President Biden's performance. Yet, Maher was not without a sense of balance. He admitted Biden might not be his first choice of ally in a potentially perilous situation, cleverly using an analogy with the popular Netflix series 'Squid Game'. Underlining a subtle acknowledgement of Biden's perceived weaknesses, he quipped, 'Would I pick Joe Biden as my partner in a Squid Games life-or-death scenario? No.' Still, Maher wasn't all criticism for the Biden administration. The 'Real Time' host complimented Biden on certain positive macro-economic indicators, such as low unemployment rates and a record-breaking stock market, even in the face of roaring inflation that continues to batter the U.S. economy. Subsequently, Maher shifted his focus to the governor of the Sunshine State, Ron DeSantis, posing a curious question as to why the left-leaning media constantly reacts with utmost intensity at any mention of the Florida governor. Maher playfully instructed the media to not always dial their criticism 'up to the maximum level' when it comes to Governor DeSantis. Maher pointed out that there was a time when liberal reports were brimming with articles claiming DeSantis was not just at par with Trump when it came to critique, but potentially even worse. In Maher's view, there were suggestions being made that DeSantis was graver danger—a statement he then humorously compared to referring to the openly controversial Trump as Hitler. Maher then neatly brought the point home, jesting, 'Just to clear things up, Donald Trump is not Adolf Hitler.' Adding an extra ounce of his well-known sardonic humor, he continued, 'He's merely a staunch admirer.' In questioning the necessity of unwarranted escalation in rhetoric, Maher reiterated his point, 'Does every disagreement need to skyrocket to the highest levels of confrontation?' Demonstrating a sort of exhausted frustration with the polarized discussion climate, Maher hinted at the need for more nuanced, varied, and level-headed evaluations of political figures. Driving home his point yet again, Maher said, 'Surely it's possible to voice your disagreement with DeSantis, without necessarily likening him to Trump?' His critique here emphasized a plea for differentiation, for understanding that different conservative figures may embrace different facets of conservative values, and not necessarily follow identical ideological paths. Real News Now Bill Maher SLAMS Media's 2024 Coverage ‘Donald Trump Is Not Adolf Hitler' Follow RNN on Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealNewsNowApp/ X Twitter: https://twitter.com/realnewsapp Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realnews/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realnewsnowapp Threads: https://www.threads.net/@realnews/ Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@RealNews YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@realnewsnowapp Video: https://youtu.be/_fhvHk-_j6k End Wokeness: https://endthewokeness.com/?ref=fbcSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Genevieve Wood, Senior Advisor at The Heritage Foundation, joins Marc & Kim to discuss that a majority of Americans oppose using preferred pronouns in schools as well as GOP Senators slamming the Biden Administration for using SPLC on 'Domestic Terrorism'
Around 100,000 nurses left the profession during Covid-19. Ryan Lee, CEO and co-founder of HireMe Healthcare, explains his passion for exploring and resolving giant problems at a deeper level, with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Ryan explains how appropriate staffing can transform patient outcomes, how nursing shortages haven't changed much since 2001, and highlights the power of technology to humanize the hiring process. He also shares the #1 operational inefficiency, explains why there's more to the talent shortage than burnout, and highlights the health system building meditation pods to promote staff well-being. Show Topics Trying to do more with less and less Three critical issues affecting patient care The talent shortage is about more than burnout The high cost of travel nurses Technology humanizes the hiring process High staff turnover makes nurse training difficult Two key strategies to transform operational efficiencies 10:41 Trying to do more with less and less Ryan said Covid highlighted the extent of operational inefficiencies in healthcare. ‘'(Studies) …found that the increase in responsibilities, the increase in travel nursing and the decrease in resources, greatly exacerbated the mental health strain on nurses. And this is obviously a tangent into how it's become a bit more uniquely of an American problem... We feel it a little more here than in others, but they also found that to be more common for hospital nurses, which checks out. But one of the best ways I've heard it said was speaking with a nurse manager from a major healthcare facility just the other day. It's about trying to do more and more with less and less. Yeah. And I was actually just speaking with a neurocritical care doc this morning and knowing I was coming on here, I said, "What would you say is the number one operational inefficiency in a healthcare system?" And she said, "There's too much administrative red tape put in place by too many people that don't have bedside experience." And that's not to say you don't need people with different backgrounds, it's critical to have that. But it was interesting to hear, and those are her words, not mine. But it's interesting to hear that take and these operational inefficiencies, and I am definitely way more qualified to speak to this in a nursing staffing context. So it just comes down to how much turnover there is. ‘' 14:53 Three critical issues affecting patient care Ryan explained the impact of inefficiencies and said appropriate staffing could improve these areas. ‘'There's patient satisfaction for one, which with the rise of value-based care is an increasingly important metric, but the other two are patient outcomes and efficiency measures. And having safe staffing, which is also called appropriate staffing or evidence-based staffing has been shown to improve all of these components. So for patient outcomes, I mean you have anything from the frequency of cardiac arrests, a lot of it just has to do with what happens when patients are in the care of understaffed units. So an increase in cardiac arrest with subpar staffing, an increase in HAIs (hospital acquired infections), which can amount to tens of billions of dollars nationwide every year. That's a really expensive one. More instances of respiratory failure, failure to rescue becomes more common. And overall it increases inpatient mortality rates, which is the very goal of a hospital to avoid. And on the efficiency side, it impacts readmission rates, the length of stay, the turnover time in an operating room, the average time in the emergency department. And coming back full circle, it impacts the staff retention, which it's this vicious cycle that self perpetuates where nurses are understaffed, working in an understaffed unit impacts mental health and wellbeing, which leads to burnout, which leads to more turnover, which leads to more understaffed units. And then it's just this cycle, it's really terrifying to look at because of what kind of an impact ... ‘' 17:32 The talent shortage is about more than burnout Ryan said issues causing the staffing shortage haven't changed much since 2001. ‘'…..there is truly a talent shortage. That's a real thing. It's not just this burnout phase, this increase after COVID, nurses fed up with the status quo and everyone leaving in droves. We lost 100,000 plus nurses last year. It's not just that. There is an actual talent shortage here, and that comes from several things. There's a pipeline issue, for instance, education is a huge ... There's a shortage in faculty talent to train our nurses. There's way more qualified applicants for nursing schools than there are available seats in nursing schools. That's part of the recent ... A hundred million that the Biden administration just pledged to attack the nursing staffing crisis is addressing the education pipeline. So it'll be really interesting to see how that plays out. …..But there is a talent shortage and there's reasons. If you go back, I'll look to this survey done by an organization, a think tank called Health Workforce Solutions. This was in 2001 where they talk about the reasons for the American nursing shortage. And it comes down to an aging population, still more true today than it was back then. They were talking about Gen X being the primary generation in the nursing workforce, which now we're looking at Millennials, an aging nursing workforce, still the same. The average age of nurses is over 50, nationwide. They had to do a lot with the work environment. They said fewer resources and more demand. This was in 2001. None of this is new. … Everyone in a healthcare environment needs more money… There's so many different demands on finance, and often the nurses struggle to enact changes.'' 23:44 The high cost of travel nurses Ryan explained how the pandemic changed the culture of travel nursing ‘'… the real basis for travel nursing was living in various places, having an adventurous life, getting a chance to fill in where needs were at a temporary high in certain areas, be it flu season, whether you're doing it to go fill in for a flu season in St. Louis or whether you just want to live in Denver, Colorado for three months. That was the basis of travel nursing up until the pandemic really. And that's when labor costs just skyrocketed for that. And it became almost imperative for the nursing side. You're looking at people making two, three times as much as you and the hospital's paying eight times that at some points. I mean, the average cost for an hour of agency labor got up to 275 an hour during the pandemic, which is utterly insane. That would be amazing money for a nurse if the nurse saw even close to half of that. But the average pay for travel nurses was still around $125 an hour versus the usual $50 an hour. I mean, so you're looking at being able to afford two and a half FTEs for the same price as a travel nurse, but why would you go take an FTE position when you can make almost three times what you're making? So it made sense for nurses to take on these roles. I knew a lot of nurses who were living in Charlotte and working in Winston-Salem, and they were technically a travel nurse, but not like when you were a travel nurse, Jim, where you moved to California to do your job. They were just driving from Charlotte to Winston two hours every day, and that made them a travel nurse and eligible for that kind of pay. So that's the system we made. And obviously, I mean, our health system nationally spent $24 billion in one year just on travel labor, which sounds absurd, but when you do the math, 275 an hour spent times our workforce that shifted into travel and the hours demanded of a short-staffed healthcare system. It was quite amazing to say the very least there.'' 28:34 Technology humanizes the hiring process Ryan explained how HireMe Healthcare technology makes the application process easier. ‘'From the hiring side, it makes it more efficient, it simplifies it, and this may sound strange given that it's technology based, but it humanizes the process. And that's what HireMe Healthcare sets out to do is to humanize the process.. So let's go from the nurse perspective first. So you are applying for a job, but you're applying for multiple because you want to find that right fit. So you're going to fill out a new application, your resume exists, but it has no point because you have to fill out applications for hospital systems through their system and through their portal individually each time, typing the same information over. …technology can play a role by offering a one-stop shop personal profile. … it's a great way to have all the necessary boxes that need to be checked for a specific job can be in one place, and then you get to take the quick step forward towards the human side of the process. Is this nurse a good fit? And HireMe Healthcare uses matching technology to pair nurses based on individualized nurses, individualized job descriptions, looking to find the person behind the resume, and the person, the people, the team behind the job description. It's not just quantitative….. I mean by having our one-stop shop personal profile, and then each customized job description, it allows hiring managers to have these candidates ranked for them just based on the check boxes and the components. And then adding in qualitative components to find out what kind of a fit someone's going to be on a particular unit.'' 34:46 High staff turnover makes nurse training difficult Ryan said when nurses ‘'flip'' every 30 to 90 days, effective training isn't possible. ‘'… Right now, it's hard to really focus on training your staff when they're turning over as quickly as they are. A lot of first year nursing students or first year grads entering the nursing workforce, they turned over some 36% I believe it was last year, and they're losing a third of grads that need the most training of all right off the bat, and that means they're going to bounce to another job. … if you're flipping to a new hospital every 30 to 90 days, like travel nurses or disgruntled first years that have a, this isn't what I expected. They're not around long enough to endure the proper training that they need. And also training comes into requiring resources, and those resources like the resources for hiring and everything else are becoming more scant, the time spent. We talked about, oncology is actually a great example of this. It's a hyper-specific practice that has a bunch of, just as they describe it, little things that make it very unique that only are necessary for oncology nursing, but they don't have the wherewithal to hire someone full-time, someone who's trying to transition into oncology. They don't have the resources to hire someone and just employ them full-time for the training necessary to become masterful in such a critical practice that has so many nuances. This is true across the board that not having enough resources to train your nurses leads to subpar training. And a lot of that training focuses, as I said, on protocols and those protocols can be unique.'' 40:02: Two key strategies to transform operational efficiencies Ryan said embracing technology and taking action on mental health can make a difference. ‘'… a couple of things we've seen have been very effective, authorizing critical staffing pay has worked. Nurses getting paid for what they're actually up against. There's building in-house nursing staffing pools, float pools have been very effective within to really have labor that understands your protocols on hand. That's been very effective. Nurses like getting paid more, but when you really talk about what's the real trigger here, it's not "If I got paid more, I would be happy in this job." The most effective measures hands down are those that address the mental health and wellbeing of nurses. And I also see a lot of efficacy coming from those that are embracing technology. … And I would say the two biggest things hospitals can do are treat their nurses well, and I mean actually taking action towards mental health. Novant Health is building meditation pods, for example. I thought that was something really cool.‘' Connect with Lisa Miller on LinkedIn Connect with Jim Cagliostro on LinkedIn Connect with Ryan Lee on LinkedIn Check out VIE Healthcare and SpendMend You'll also hear: From law school to HireMe Healthcare via Uganda, a passion for human rights, and a pandemic; Ryan's varied career journey. The current vacancy rate in nursing is causing problems in achieving nurse to patient ratio. ‘'… right now it's at 16% a little over, which is a lot of gaps to be filled. That's a lot of nursing positions that are needed.'' The impact of Covid-19 on nursing turnover. ‘'At the height of the pandemic, turnover got up to almost 30%. It was a little over 28. And so that's almost a third of the entire national workforce just turning over. And that doesn't include the specialties that had significantly more.'' How using an old address on a resume can filter applicants out, rather than in. The impact of asking for nurses for voluntary overtime. ‘'According to the NSI retention report, 99% of hospitals are doing this, and it's not very effective as you can imagine, especially if we look at the impact on nurse wellbeing and nurse mental health.'' Leadership lessons: The far-reaching impact of burnout versus the need for self-care, compassion, and gratitude. ‘'The best thing you can do for other people is take care of yourself.'' What To Do Next: Subscribe to The Economics of Healthcare and receive a special report on 15 Effective Cost Savings Strategies. There are three ways to work with VIE Healthcare: Benchmark a vendor contract – either an existing contract or a new agreement. We can support your team with their cost savings initiatives to add resources and expertise. We set a bold cost savings goal and work together to achieve it. VIE can perform a cost savings opportunity assessment. We dig deep into all of your spend and uncover unique areas of cost savings. If you are interested in learning more, the quickest way to get your questions answered is to speak with Lisa Miller at lmiller@spendmend.com or directly at 732-319-5700.
This week's episode features Brian Feroldi. Brian is a financial educator, author, speaker, creator, and YouTuber. Brian began investing in 2004. He had no idea what he was doing at first, but as his experience and knowledge of the stock market developed, his returns improved considerably. He enjoys assisting others in making better financial decisions, particularly with regard to investments. He joined us today to talk about his book, ‘Why Does the Stock Market Go Up?: Everything You Should Have Been Taught About Investing in School, But Weren't.'According to Brian, the most powerful time to start investing is when you are young. The more time that you have on your side, the more powerful the dollars that you are putting into the market. Brian shares the common investing mistakes people make and how to avoid making those mistakes.We explore the benefits and potential pitfalls of taking a company public and investing in mutual funds. Brian also dives into the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the creation of the S&P 500. Additionally, Brian discusses the importance of finding a good financial advisor and the various investment accounts available. The episode ends with an explanation of how bid and ask prices work in the stock market and the impact of market fluctuations. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights into the world of finance.[02.54] US stock market – Starting the conversation, Brian explains why he addresses the US stock market as the greatest wealth-creation machine of all time in his book.[10.29] Selling ownership – We talk about how a corporation can raise money from investors by selling ownership in itself.[16.03] New York Stock Exchange - The largest stock market exchange in the world today.[23.15] IPO – Brian defines what an IPO is and how it interfaces with the stock market.[30.21] P/E ratio – Brian defines the Price to Earnings ratio and the macroeconomic factors that resulted in a high or low ratio in different time periods.[38.05] Benjamin Graham – Benjamin Graham invented the concept of value investing, influenced Warren Buffett[43.00] Compounding - The compounding of an investment leads to massive gains in wealth over time.[50.49] Mutual funds – Brian explains the reasons for the underperformance of mutual funds.[59.46] Financial advisor – We talk about the things people need to be looking out for if they are going to use a financial advisor. ResourcesConnect with Brian Website - brianferoldi.com/ LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/brianferoldi/ Instagram - instagram.com/brianferoldi/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@BrianFeroldiYTTwitter - twitter.com/BrianFeroldi Book by BrianWhy Does The Stock Market Go Up?: Everything You Should Have Been Taught About Investing In School, But Weren't Book by Robert T. KiyosakiRich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!Book by Terry SmithInvesting for Growth: How to make money by only buying the best companies in the world – An anthology of investment writing
As long as God is involved in your prayer and petition it's already a signed,sealed and delivered solution. As children of God atimes it's not easy to cope with some circumstances and if help from above appears delaying one can loose faith .The truth is this healing is faith based Bible says jesus touched the eyes of blind men " and said, 'According to your faith let it be done to you. Hallelujah
"'According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts,'" Oct. 1996 General Conference, Elder Neal A. Maxwell
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Anywhere Jesus,went he was doing good.bible says God anointed him with the holy ghost and power ,he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. As long as God is involved in your prayer and petition it's already a signed,sealed and delivered solution. As children of God atimes it's not easy to cope with some circumstances and if help from above appears delaying one can loose faith .The truth is this healing is faith based Bible says jesus touched the eyes of blind men " and said, 'According to your faith let it be done to you. Hallelujah
True Crime Podcast 2023 - Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories Podcast
"It's Time to Die", Chilling words of Tamarius Davis | Police Interrogation'It's time to die': Chilling words of drugged-up UPS driver in Miami 'who pointed a gun at a BABY before shooting dead his father who shielded his son with his own body': Is held without bond after court appearanceTamarius Davis, 22, from Georgia, charged with murder for the killing of Colorado tourist Dustin Wakefield Police and family said Wakefield was eating dinner with wife and baby son at a Miami Beach restaurant when Davis approached the family with a gunRelative said Davis pointed gun at Wakefield's one-year-old son, but the dad shielded him and was shot multiple timesWitnesses reported seeing Davis celebrate by dancing on top of Wakefield's bodyDavis was said to have told cops he shot Wakefield at random because he 'was high on mushrooms, which made him feel empowered' Harrowing new details have emerged in connection with the deadly shooting that claimed the life of a young father in Miami Beach on Tuesday, including how the suspected killer pointed a gun at the victim's one-year-old son and said, 'It's time to die.' Tamarius Davis, 22, a UPS driver from Georgia, was arrested on a count of murder for allegedly gunning down Dustin Wakefield, 21, who was visiting Miami Beach with his family, including his wife and baby son.Wakefield's uncle, Michael Wakefield, told DailyMail.com on Thursday that the gunman, whom he slammed as a 'dirt bag,' approached his nephew and other relatives at random as they were having dinner at an outdoor Mexican restaurant on Ocean Drive. 'The suspect came up to Dustin and said “ it's time to die”,' Michael recounted in a Facebook Messenger exchange. 'The suspect pointed the gun at my nephew['s] son then Dustin replied back to him saying “he's just a baby” and then Dustin stood in front of he's [sic] son and then he was shot.'According to the uncle, who was not present during the attack but was told about it by Dustin's mother, his nephew sustained multiple gunshot wounds, including to the head.As it was previously reported by news outlets citing eyewitness accounts, Davis then allegedly celebrated by dancing over Dustin's body as he lay dying on the ground. 'You can't wrap your head around this type of evil,' the uncle said. Reddit True Crime Podcasts 2022 - Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and Unsolved Mysteries Reddit
In Episode 53 of The Healthcare Leadership Experience Jim Cagliostro is joined by Creston Tate, DO, Medical Director of WellSpan Health Urgent Care to discuss the challenges of hiring healthcare workers in the wake of ‘'The Great Resignation.'' Episode Introduction Demand for urgent care has intensified since 2020. In this episode, Jim Cagliostro, VIE's Clinical Operations Performance Improvement Expert, interviewed Creston Tate to explore the impact of the pandemic, the growing demand for urgent care facilities, the reasons behind the ‘'Great Resignation'', and the need to adapt to a shrinking talent pool. Show Topics The growing demand for urgent care. How the ‘'Great Resignation'' affects patients. Reimbursement and the Walmart/Amazon challenge. Flexible schedules are essential to attract the right people. The shrinking candidate pool. Ensuring safety means urgent care sites may close temporarily. 02:13 The growing demand for urgent care. Creston highlighted the exponential growth in demand for urgent care in the past 6 years. ‘'My experience grew, my appreciation for medicine grew, my appreciation for the urgent care world, I call it the episodic world of medicine really grew too. There's clearly a huge gap in care for this particular type of patient that isn't being provided in the outpatient world. I did that for 17 years and just about six years ago, I transitioned into more of an outpatient urgent care directorship through my current healthcare system and have really enjoyed the growth that we have had, which is probably somewhere around the 12 to 13% growth rate per year in urgent care. As we started with five and now we're opening up our 15th urgent care this year with record volumes. I've seen it in the inpatient world, in the emergency room, and now I'm seeing it in the outpatient world and I'm bringing it all together and it's been fun to see that happen…..With the influx of patients to emergency departments and the overcrowding of EDs and wait times, perhaps some of your listeners have actually unfortunately experienced a 10 or 12-hour wait in emergency departments, it's just not fun. It's been estimated that even up to 50 to 60% of ED visits could have been handled outside of the emergency department, if the resources were there. I think that's where urgent cares and primary care providers can step in, if there's enough providers and enough access available for that. I've seen a huge switch. I know that for us, we open 12 hours a day. I think if we opened 18, we would have just as big a volume as we do now, if not larger.'' 06:08 How the ‘'Great Resignation'' affects patients. Creston explained the difference between unfilled jobs in the healthcare sector versus vacancies in retail. ‘'Whether you go to a restaurant or you go to a convenience store, it seems like there's a paucity of workers. Despite the published low unemployment rate, it does seem like there's a lot of jobs that just aren't being filled. You take that for what it's worth, but clearly healthcare, maybe isn't affected more as far as numbers, but what I will say, Jim, is that healthcare is affected more impactfully because it is an essential piece of our fabric. If we don't have the right number of healthcare workers, people's health suffers. If we don't have enough people working at a Walmart, well, you might just have to search around for something a little longer yourself or wait in line a little bit longer, or maybe the shelves aren't stocked as readily as you would like them to be. The impact there is certainly felt more if somebody can't get their diabetic medication or their follow-up or their blood work or that CAT scan that they've been looking for to follow that tumor, than if somebody is simply shopping for material goods. I do agree with you, the resignation as it's been called, we've seen it. We certainly in our healthcare system have seen it tremendously. What I will say is that we haven't seen a tremendous loss of... And again, I'll speak from my own personal experience. In the urgent cares that I work in I don't think we've had a huge number of people leave healthcare. We have had a number of them switch out of urgent care, which has been inundated with complex patients, probably more complex than we should see, and also sicker patients. Going through the pandemic and gowning up with gloves and masks and goggles and all this paraphernalia to try to protect our healthcare workers, it has been quite a ride for our providers and our staff. Quite frankly, I think the burnout rate is really more just fatigue. They're just tired of this continual ask to see patients who are sicker and sicker and they don't feel as though perhaps they're getting reimbursed for the higher level of risk that they're taking compared to rest of society.'' 10:16 Reimbursement and the Walmart/Amazon challenge. Creston said the higher salaries offered by Walmart and Amazon make it difficult for healthcare organizations to compete in attracting talent. ‘'One of the greatest challenges in healthcare is going to be the big box store. Whether you look at the Walmarts or you look at the Amazons out there that just bought up one medical and 125 stores, which were like healthcare facilities that they bought up. Now there's going to be a challenge of trying to retain our own employees when maybe someone like Amazon could offer them more dollars per hour. You thin out the potential pool of good healthcare workers, even greater when that kind of thing occurs. Again, that's big business. I understand that. Their goal is to try to provide better healthcare to more people in a more efficient and cost-effective way. Whether or not they succeed in that, I don't know, but you have that. Then you also have the challenge of other very wealthy companies who are offering $17 or $18 or $19 an hour as a startup when we're looking for medical assistants that typically are $17/16.50 an hour. They may not go into medical assistant work. Instead, they're going to take another job because it pays $3 to $4 an hour because inflation is causing them to make those decisions for their family so that they can feed their family. We're seeing perhaps the same number of workers who are being thinned out and perhaps pulled away from healthcare that once maybe in the past would have considered healthcare to go into as a stable job.'' 12:40 Flexible schedules are essential to attract the right people. Creston commented that healthcare must adapt to candidate needs to fill the gaps in the workforce. ‘'When I went into medicine, when I got hired by that first company to work family medicine, I worked hard and I came in on Saturdays and I took call. I didn't complain. I double and triple booked. It was all that sort of thing, because it was kind of expected perhaps at that time. When we interview candidates now for positions, I had to put that own bias aside and I had to say, "If I see a candidate who is really a strong candidate for us, that I want to get on our team, I may have to think a little bit outside the box and say, 'Okay, I have a 25 or a 28-year-old mother who's perhaps an RN who we want to hire because she is just fantastic. Her skill set is great. Her fit and personality is perfect for our team. I have to figure out a way that I'm going to have her on our team.'" It may be that I have to work my schedule a little bit differently because of her because she has a family and she has other things that are balancing her life a little differently than perhaps I would have back in those days. I would have to also think about healthcare. How can we give her the hours that she needs so that she can help us and also provide the healthcare for her family that she needs? I think there's a lot of ways in which I think we, as leaders of these larger companies have to start thinking ways of adapting to the needs of our workers today. If I were to simply say, "Well, that's just not the way we've done things." I probably wouldn't find anybody to work for me because we have to work around people's schedules today.'' 17:44 The shrinking candidate pool. Creston stated that numbers of available candidates have fallen significantly since Covid. ‘'Prior to 2020, for any given opportunity to work as a provider or staff member for us, we would have five to seven candidates. Now we have about three. Our qualifications perhaps haven't changed too much, but we've had to sometimes look a little bit deeper, maybe ask a little bit different type of question to the three candidates that we may only get and say, "Okay. Well, we're only going to get three for this position because we need to get somebody relatively soon, who is the best one out of these three?" I think that's been a little bit more difficult for us. I guess, we don't have... Obviously the larger the pool, the better you can say, "Okay. This is the perfect person." When your pool is narrowed, you sometimes have to take chances and sometimes our chances are right on and we thought, "Boy, I thought you were going to be a question mark, but you have turned out to be an amazing provider." We've had to do that. Our number of candidates typically is much smaller now to find the best fit. One thing that we've also changed and really try to do more of is we try to involve our providers a little bit more in that interview process, meaning that the leaders will do the initial interview and then we bring that candidate back and we have them spend six or eight hours in our site. It's volunteer hours, but we tell them, "Listen, it may be worth it for you to make sure that you are working in the right place for you. We like you, but we want to make sure that you like the site, that you like the people that you're working with. Because if you sense there's going to be tension here, we would rather you know that at the very beginning of your employment, and we can address those issues if that's going to be the case." 23:12 Ensuring safety means urgent care sites may close temporarily Creston said that the struggle to hire staff makes it difficult to guarantee high quality care. ‘'One of the recent articles I've read talked about, where is the biggest fright in healthcare today? Again, in my urgent care world, number one 58% of people said hiring medical assistants and rad techs. There are crucial positions that we need in our healthcare system that there just isn't enough people out there to get. We say the pool is very dry and it's frustrating because we have actually had to close a couple of our sites on certain days, strictly because we didn't have the right support. We want to make sure that we provide the safest care and also the most compassionate care, but also do it in a way that we're not burning out and we're not frustrating our providers. It wouldn't be fair for me, Jim, if you were working for me and I said, "Jim, I know there's normally three staff members and two docs working today, but unfortunately you're the only person on, so you're going to have to carry the load for three people and we only have one doc too so you're probably going to have long wait times today." You're already defeated even before the day starts. That becomes very difficult and we have to boost each other up. We have to just carry the torch for each other because I think that if we don't look for ways in which we can solve some of these healthcare crisis issues with staffing, that's going to be the demise of a lot of good healthcare. A lot of people let their health go during COVID and we're seeing sicker and sicker patients because they couldn't get this or they couldn't get that. Or maybe they were afraid to go out, and some still are afraid to go out and get care.'' Connect with Jim Cagliostro on LinkedIn Connect with Creston Tate on LinkedIn Check out VIE Healthcare Consulting You'll Also Hear: From family medicine to the ER: how Creston's previous experience equipped him for his role in urgent care The ‘'Great Resignation'' in numbers. ‘'According to some of their reports, the healthcare industry has lost an estimated 20% of its workforce, including 30% of nurses.,,, in 2022, nearly 1.7 million people have quit their healthcare jobs…. Then a recent survey of a thousand healthcare professionals showed that 28% had quit a job because of burnout.'' Why Covid is affecting career choice when it comes to healthcare. ‘' Three years ago, we didn't have as much of that concern that they're going to take something home and infect their family.'' The cultural shift: from ‘'lifers'' to frequent job changers. How a change in perspective means employees move jobs every three to five years. The one sign that indicates your candidate has done their pre-interview preparation. Adapting to change: the growing number of ‘'greenies'' in the healthcare sector. ‘'A physician's assistant is a classic example. Physician assistants oftentimes come through their medical career. They have that PA degree when they get out, but some of them have never stepped foot in an office before.'' What To Do Next: Subscribe to The Cost Advantage for Healthcare Leaders and receive a special report on 15 Effective Cost Savings Strategies. Learn more about the simple 3 step process to work with us. If you are interested in learning more, the quickest way to get your questions answered is to speak with one of our margin improvement experts. Schedule a call with our team here.
In today's podcast, I interview Jenn Bass who is organizing the first-ever Pride Month Celebration here in Estes Park, about the planned festivities. I then read my next audio essay in my series of ‘Mostly True Tales' about an adventure I had in the Summer after graduating my senior year in high school. It is entitled ‘Red Boxes and Mafia Kids.'Here is the essay in written format: Mostly True Tales: Red Boxes and Mafia Kids.New Jersey is a strange place. You don't realize that until you get away from it.For the first twelve years of my life, I grew up in that land of the strange. I grew up in a small, little lakeside town called ‘Green Pond' It was in northern Jersey, which I now know most people think of as one vast paved-over wasteland of a cityscape. But, nothing could be further from the truth. It was a forested wonderland tucked behind a two-mile-long lake that was far from a pond. There were maybe two or three hundred people in the town; that's the picture my childhood memory paints. We lived in a small yellow house at the very end of Sunset Road. This story does not take place in Green Pond but starts there.I remember waking up one morning to find a strange, hairy man sleeping topless on our front couch, and the kicker was he was wearing a dress! It must have been a Saturday morning as I was fucking pissed off that this stranger was going to disrupt my usual Saturday morning routine of gorging myself on Lucky Charms and watching my favorite Saturday commercials.My parents had separated earlier in the year, and Mom had begun dating again. She had gone out the night before to some party, leaving my little brother and me with the red-headed babysitter down the street.I remember running to my mother's bedroom in fear, panic, and anger to let her know some crazed, homeless man wearing a dress appeared in the night and decided to crash out on our front couch.My mother roused from her cloudy-headed sleep to tell me it was ‘OK' and that the man was her new friend Bill whom she had met at a Hawaiian luau party. And she was sure to add that he was wearing a costume, not a dress.Bill would, in a year, become my step-father and, after my angst-ridden teenage years, become one of the most influential people in my life.When Bill became a part of my family's lives, I also got a new set of cousins from Jersey City, Billy, and Jimmy. Jimmy was the older of the two but smaller in stature; Billy, the younger cousin, loved to eat and was one of the happiest kids I remember. I remember one time he came out and, during a backyard cookout, would have several stacks of hamburger paddies that he would stack up and smother with condiments. I am not exaggerating when I say the kid tore through condiments.Jimmy was the smart one. He would start one of the first iPhone repair companies in New York City.Coming from the idyllic beachfront life experience, meeting Bill's family, whom all lived in the same tower of the Jersey City projects, was quite an adventure. There was a community pool. We spent many hot city summer days at the top of one of the towers in the early 80s. Where my little brother and I, along with Billy and Jimmy, would try and float paper airplanes over the Hudson into New York City. We would also drop pennies down onto the parking structure below us, cratering the hoods and roofs of the cars below to gleeful giggles—just a bunch of poor kids having the fun we could find in the smoggy Jersey City Summer.Once we moved to Colorado, I saw Billy and Jimmy less and less. But during the summer of '92, after I graduated from high school, I went back to Jersey to spend some time with my actual father and work fire demo with him. It had been several years since I had spent any time with him, and it didn't take long to realize why I had chosen not to spend my summers with him anymore.He had a new wife that wasn't much older than I was then, and I had my own experiences with women her age by this point in my life.She was a cunt, and I don't use the term lightly (as the Brits do.) She was just a straight-up bitch, and it only took a couple of weeks to realize that I had to get out of there.While brainstorming with my mother about getting the fuck out of Dodge (Along with the bitch breaking onto the call to refute just how awful she had been.) We came up with the idea that I could spend a couple of weeks couch surfing with my family in Jersey City.This worked out great because my friend from high school, Matt, was coming to New York City, and we were supposed to spend some time in the city before we both went off to college and started the rest of our lives. Matt was a walking dichotomy, He played varsity football, but we found a connection through our love of music and psychedelics.My mother bought me a train ticket to NYC, and my cousin Jimmy would meet me at Grand Central Station to ensure I got there alive. After making the short trip to the city, my cousin guided me back under the river to Jersey City.The family still lived in the same tower but had moved apartments from the one I remembered. My cousin Jimmy asked me the first thing when we got back to the apartment was, “Hey, feel like making some money?” He said it with the same grin he had when we were kids, and he asked me if I wanted to have some fun by tossing pennies off the roof of the building cratering the hoods of the cars below.“well, sure!” I answered. After being unable to work the whole summer doing the well-paying deconstruction of burnt-out condos, I was happy to find a way to make some extra money.“So…how are we making money?” I asked.With a twinkle in his eye, he answered my question with another question. “You ever hear of a red box?”For those of you who are too young to remember the days of public pay phones or didn't have friends who were hackers growing up, here is a little history lesson on ‘Red Boxes.'But first, we need to talk about the advent of the phone ‘Phreaking.'According to Wikipedia;Phone phreaking got its start in the late 50s. Its golden age was the late 1960s and early 1970s. Phone phreaks spent much time dialing around the telephone network to understand how the phone system worked, engaging in activities such as listening to the pattern of tones to figure out how calls were routed, reading obscure telephone company technical journals, learning how to impersonate operators and other telephone company personnel, digging through telephone company trash bins to find "secret" documents, sneaking into telephone company buildings at night and wiring up their telephones, building electronic devices called blue boxes, black boxes, and red boxes to help them explore the network and make free phone calls, hanging out on early conference call circuits and "loop around" to communicate with one another and writing their newsletters to spread information.A red box is a phreaking device that generates tones to simulate inserting coins in pay phones, thus fooling the system into completing free calls. In the United States, a nickel is represented by one tone, a dime by two, and a quarter by a set of five. Any device capable of playing back recorded sounds can potentially be used as a red box. Commonly used devices include modified Radio Shack tone dialers, personal MP3 players, and audio-recording greeting cards.So, my cousin had swiped his mom's credit card and ordered a case of radio shack phone dialers. These were small, handheld, brown plastic rectangles with a keypad and a speaker on the front face.For those of you old fogies out there, remember when you would put a quarter into a pay phone, and there would be a series of five tones. Well, that was the computer in the payphone, telling the computer at the phone company that you had put in 25 cents in intervals of 5 cents. So hackers, or rather phreakers, figured out that you could switch out a chip on a radio shack phone dialer, and it would emulate that tone exactly.My cousin also ordered a case of those chips, and we spent the next week soldering in the chips along with a switch that allowed the devices to either function as a red box or switched over to just being a regular phone dialer. (This was as close as a contact list as we had before the days of smartphones. (You could store like 25 numbers in these things.) The plan was to sell the case of red boxes to the Mafia Kids that Jimmy knew growing up with them in Jersey City, making a tidy profit for both of us.I still remember Jimmy driving around the different neighborhoods of Jersey City, showing me the various mafia cars parked outside of Italian restaurants, explaining to me the different meanings behind different colored flowers that were put in the hood ornaments of some of the cars.So we spent the next week before Matt came out to meet us disassembling the radio shack phone dialers, installing the replacement chips, and adding a switch.The plan was to go pick up Matt from the train station, fuck around for a bit in the city before meeting Jimmy's contact in Greenwich Village for him to check out the red boxes and pay us the money, and then we would hit the night clubs of NYC with our profits like pirates after a successful haul. We were walking on clouds that week. What could possibly go wrong?”Well, it turns out this was a series of monumental life lessons. Don't mess with the Mafia Kids.After securing a tazer (just in case), We picked up Matt as planned from the station, then headed to the village to find someone that looked radically different from the picture I had in my mind of what a ‘mafia kid' was supposed to look like. This was a skinny kid in shorts, a tank top, long hair pushed behind a Yankees cap, and a large pair of sunglasses. Maybe he was incognito. He directed us to pull onto a side street next to a payphone so he could test out one of the red boxes. He jumped out of the car and ran over to the payphone. After making a call with the red box, he grabbed out of the cardboard box we had them all in and trotted back.“So?” Jimmy asked“They work great!” The kid said with a smirk. Hey, pull off into this alley.” He pointed across the street. I'll give you the cash when we are out of sight. Jimmy naively did just what the kid said to do as soon as we pulled the car to a stop. My worst anxieties came to life. Four fully grown men in plain clothes walked up to the car's four doors. Just before they got to the front passenger door, the mafia kid jumped out with the cardboard box filled with our hopes and dreams and sprinted away. The men pulled up their shirts from their waistbands, revealing handguns and badges.“What the fuck are you kids up to?” the man outside Jimmy's open window yelled into the car.I am sure we all three collectively peed our pants, just a little.“Nothing. I was showing my friend our new phone dialers. We were selling them to raise funds for our band trip later this summer.” Jimmy had kept his cool much better than I had.“Yeah, sure, kid, you sure those weren't red boxes?”“Yeah, I'm sure.”“Shut up.” The man said, and we all sat in silence, sweating in the summer city heat.“We need you to meet us at the police station, don't fuck around; just drive right there and ask Detective Calzone. We'll meet you there. Got it?”“Yeah, sure, we got it.”As quickly as the men had appeared, they melted back into the pulse of the bustling city weekend, and we sat in stunned silence, letting the adrenaline course through our veins.I finally broke the silence. “Hey Jimmy, I'm not sure those were cops.”“Nope, they were mafia guys, and we just got ripped off.”“I think I need to call my parents,” Matt added.The next few days were spent in defeat. Matt and I went and got some fake ID's over in Times Square and then went back to Colorado.Later that month, I would get a call from Jimmy saying he had gotten some payback on the mafia kids when he had set fire to one of their private gas pumps.My mom and dad got some harrowing news at the end of summer. Billy, who had nothing to do with our dealings with the mafia kids, had been visiting his father in the Greek Isles and had been killed when the scooter he was riding was forced off the road and into a cable that had been strung across the exit. He was decapitated and killed instantly.While I don't know if these events were connected, I can't help to wonder if we should have never fucked with the mafia kids and red boxes. Today's episode is sponsored by: Get full access to The Colorado Switchblade at www.coloradoswitchblade.com/subscribe
Alan Cutter's military career began in 1969, when he enlisted into the US Naval Security Group. After training to become a commissioned officer, he was sent to Vietnam to officially work as an interpreter, although his assignments were listed as, 'According to the needs of the service'. After many missions in what we would today call, 'Black-Ops', Alan eventually went to teach at the Naval Academy Preparatory school, located in Port Deposit, MD. After attaining his Master of Divinity, Alan served as a pastor in numerous churches, whilst completing his Doctor of Ministry degree at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA. After mentally breaking down, Alan was eventually diagnosed with PTSD and then with Agent Orange related Parkinson's disease. While frequenting a Veteran's center, he met Father Phil Salois and joined the organization Phil had founded the year before. After retiring as a pastor, Alan has written many acclaimed books, whilst enjoying the Florida sunshine. Read 'Eating Smoke: One Man's Descent into Crystal Meth Psychosis in Hong Kong's Triad Heartland.' Paperback UK: https://amzn.to/2YoeaPx Paperback US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0993543944 Support the podcast at: https://www.patreon.com/christhrall (£2 per month plus perks) https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-our-veterans-to-tell-their-story https://paypal.me/TeamThrall Sign up for my NON-SPAM newsletter and FREE books: https://christhrall.com/mailing-list/ Social media Links: https://facebook.com/christhrall https://twitter.com/christhrall https://instagram.com/chris.thrall https://linkedin.com/in/christhrall https://youtube.com/christhrall https://discord.gg/yqvHRUN https://christhrall.com
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Artist and designer Jim Evans, aka TAZ, learned his trade in the San Francisco underground rock scene. He has illustrated comics, album covers, rock and film posters, as well as advertising and magazine illustrations. Evans is the founder of the TAZ collaboration, which is responsible for hundreds of gig posters, album covers, and rock ephemera. TAZ has turned out numerous posters for bands like the Foo Fighters, U2, Oasis, Porno For Pyros, Green Day, Pearl Jam, The Beastie Boys, L7, Ramones, Rage Against The Machine, Wu Tang Clan, Metallica, and Nine Inch Nails. It's time to get raw and real about life according to TAZ. Featured in: 'The Clean Edition' of AwareNow Magazine Topic: Art, Poster Art, Rock Poster Featuring: Jim Evans Interviewed by: Eddie Donaldson Produced by: Awareness Ties
Why do colleagues who are not as smart get promoted over you?Oliver Siegel is the CEO & Founder of enolve - a company that develops problem-solving software and tech for collaborations and innovation. He helps company leaders accelerate growth & improve organizations through innovative problem-solving. On this episode, Oliver interviews Roberta Ndlela on how improving your communication skills help you accelerate your career and get your promoted. You may not be the smartest, but be visible by speaking up more and being willing to do presentations at work.Listen as Roberta shares:- why we struggle to get out of our comfort zones- why hiding your genius in your hard drive will not help you- why you need to volunteer to do presentations at work- how organizations choose their leaders- how you get promoted on technical skills but require soft skills to lead- why improving communication skills increases your compensation- how much leaders invest in soft skills- why tertiary institutions do not emphasize soft skills- how to fill in the gap and invest in yourself- why climbing the corporate ladder is challenging without soft skills... and so much more!English Communication Coach for STEM professionals, Margaret Morris wrote an article on LinkedIn, highlighting how crucial communication skills are if you aspire to be promoted:'Advancement always requires us to enhance and develop new skills. Management positions require English that is easily understood, organized, succinct, and motivating. Speaking is a skill that can be improved!'Harvard Business Review states that 'promotions aren't just about your skills - they are about your relationships.'College Recruiter stated on their website: 'According to research from Accountemps, CFOs say poor interpersonal skills is the most common reason for employees to fail to advance at their company.Since we work in teams, there is bound to be conflict. Flexjobs states:'Out of all the soft skills, becoming emotionally intelligent is the one that will help you the most. Emotional intelligence refers to your ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. When you sharpen this ability, you can more effectively find your voice, assist in conflict resolution, and create your own sphere of influence. In other words—you can lead a team more effectively.'Connect with Oliver:LinkedInYouTubeAdditional Resources:"How To Climb The Engineering Career Ladder" w/ Limor Bergman GrossLeave a rating and a review on iTunes & Spotify:iTunesSpotifyReach out on:FacebookInstagramEmail: roberta4sk@gmail.comYouTube
Freelance workers are considered self-employed and even a business of one needs insurance. There are a few types of business insurance for freelancers: general liability, professional liability, business interruption, and cyber security insurance. Let's take it one by one so you can understand which one you might need, depending on your business needs. In this episode, you will… Understand the differences between all types of freelancer insurance Find out why you should get professional liability insurance for freelancers Know how to choose the right freelancer insurance depending on your needs Get some recommendations on the best insurance companies for small businesses Insights: ''Let's say your client sent you a work laptop and you spilled your tea on your client's laptop. What happens next?'' ''Professional liability insurance is an important part of your business or freelance career. Whether you're a full-time employee or work independently, you'll need this type of coverage to protect yourself against lawsuits that can result in costly payouts.'' ''According to Kaspersky Labs, the average cost of a small business data breach is $86,500? If you are storing client sensitive data such as credit card number, you might want to look at cyber security insurance'' Pss, did you know that Fiverr offers you a $100 bonus when you sign up on their platform? Wow, I know, here's the signup link: https://bit.ly/3Fm0t8H Do not sleep on your money! Get $10 in Bitcoin today: https://bit.ly/3s5cadX Listen to the episode for more actionable insights and tips. Website and Freebies: https://www.jumpinpodcast.com/ Contact Me: doina@jumpinpodcast.com Connect with Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jumpinpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jumpinpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/jumpinpodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jumpinpodcast/message
*** What does talent acquisition look like in the midst of a pandemic? *** The short answer is digital—very, very digital. Thanks to Covid-19, the traditional hiring process has been harder than ever this year as recruiters and candidates scrambled to adapt to a fully remote experience. Here's the thing: 'According to a Sage report, 24% of businesses have started using AI for their talent acquisition needs, with 56% of managers planning to adopt automated technology in the next twelve months.' (Forbes, 2021) Success-capable candidates in 2021 will demonstrate strong communication, ease with technology and a flexible, adaptable approach to their work. Sneek peak of questions we discuss: - How to adopt hiring technologies such as automation and AI - How to stay personal when the organisation uses AI as part of your recruitment process - How to eliminate bias in the hiring process - What are the long-term hiring strategies? Thank you for choosing to listen to my podcast. I'd love to hear your views on what Jeni Ling and I discussed. Book your complimentary discovery call where I show you a sneak peek of your leadership superpowers and show you the best way for YOU to work with me.
On this episode of Rightly Dividing, we are looking at how God instructs us, through His apostles and prophets, to study the holy scriptures. We are to learn what the bible says and what the bible teaches, not through tradition, but according to the scriptures. When we apply this much-needed method of study, it brings us to a near-immediate and markedly different conclusion than what is taught in most churches in our day. Our rallying cry must be "Sola Scriptura!", and leave the "traditions of men" to those who want religion instead of a relationship with the Almighty God of the bible.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
St Dwynwen, the Welsh patron saint of lovers and the 'island of love'According to the legend, the life of fifth-century saint St Dwynen was far from easy.She is said to have forsaken love for herself in order to bring it to others, and was granted wished by angels, and a magic potion, in order to make it happen from a church off the coast of Anglesey. Join Mark Rees (author of Ghosts of Wales) as he investigates her former home and site of pilgrimage on the island of Ynys Llanddwyn, and how she is celebrated annually on January 25.So never mind St Valentine's Day - celebrate Dydd Santes Dwynen!What is the Ghosts & Folklore of Wales with Mark Rees podcast?In early 2020, Mark Rees launched the world’s first podcast dedicated to Welsh ghost stories, folklore, myths and legends.By combining his unique research and insights from many books and articles with long-lost tales from dusty old tomes, this weird and wonderful podcast takes a fascinating look at countless curious subjects.New episodes are uploaded every Thursday, and feature everything from real-life encounters with pesky poltergeists to fantastical beasts from the Mabinogion and the skulled-headed Christmas favourite herself, the Mari Lwyd.Be sure to subscribe, and for more details and to get in touch with Mark Rees, please visit:Mark Rees homepageMark Rees on social mediaBooks by Mark ReesGhosts of Wales podcast
Who was Mary? Who was this young woman who was chosen to be the earthly mother of our Lord Jesus Christ? We'll see how her response to God's call impacts each one us to this day.
'An espionage thriller from the golden age of such outings.' Today we decode a brush pass transmission sent in by Spybrary listener Andy Onyx. Andy gives us his brush pass spy movie review of The Internecine Project. 'According to the dictionary, internecine means destructive to both sides in a conflict. So let's just hold that thought with the rhythm of its syllables in the three-word title the internecine project, which lets us know what we're in for. An espionage thriller from the golden age of such outings.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for you are my praise." The Good News: Healing goes hand in hand with thanksgiving and praise. God rewards a grateful heart. "Then he touched their eyes [of the blind men] and said, 'According to your faith let it be done to you.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hun and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hum and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
Joined by Jimmy Wiz, Episode 51 sees the team chop it up with the Rapper/Emcee, as he sheds light on his career, current album release and all things 'According to Jimmy" Opening Track: Jimmy Wiz - Dead Presidents Closing Track: Jimmy Wiz - ATJ Medley No Hidden Agenda Podcast Available on #iTunes #Spotify & #Soundclound smarturl.it/nhapodcastep
On the podcast today, the guys are chatting about James Faulkner closet jumping, spy whales and learning about spiders web's in 'According to Science'...
Pope Leo was one of the great bastions of Orthodoxy during the time of the monophysite heresy and its offshoots. 'According to some, this Saint was born in Rome, but according to others in Tyrrenia (Tuscany), and was consecrated to the archiepiscopal throne of Rome in 440. In 448, when St Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople [also commemorated today], summoned Eutyches, an archimandrite in Constantinople, to give account for his teaching that there was only one nature in Christ after the Incarnation, Eutyches appealed to St Leo in Rome. After St Leo had carefully examined Eutyches' teachings, he wrote an epistle to St Flavian, setting forth the Orthodox teaching of the person of Christ, and His two natures, and also counseling Flavian that, should Eutyches sincerely repent of his error, he should be received back with all good will. At the Council held in Ephesus in 449, which was presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria (and which Saint Leo, in a letter to the holy Empress Pulcheria in 451, was the first to call "The Robber Council"), Dioscorus, having military might behind him, did not allow Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian to be read, although repeatedly asked to do so; even before the Robber Council was held, Dioscorus had uncanonically received the unrepentant Eutyches back into communion. Because Saint Leo had many cares in Rome owing to the wars of Attila the Hum and other barbarians, in 451 he sent four delegates to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, where 630 Fathers gathered in Chalcedon during the reign of Marcian, to condemn the teachings of Eutyches and those who supported him. Saint Leo's epistle to Flavian was read at the Fourth Council, and was confirmed by the Holy Fathers as the Orthodox teaching on the incarnate Person of our Lord; it is also called the "Tome of Leo." The Saint wrote many works in Latin; he reposed in 461.'(Great Horologion). St Leo is remembered for saving Rome from conquest by Attila the Hun. When Attila drew near to Rome, preparing to pillage the city, St Leo went out to him in his episcopal vestments and enjoined him to turn back. For reasons unknown to worldly historians, the pitiless Attila with all his troops abandoned their attack and returned the way they had come.
While Damien Echols has consistently downplayed his violent history in softball media interviews, the records, as usual, tell a very different tale than heard from Echols and his supporters. "DAMIEN ADMITS TO A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE." The central figure in the investigation, prosecution, incarceration and release of the West Memphis 3 was the flamboyant and problematic Damien Echols, whose boyhood ambition to become a world-class occultist put him out of step with his peers in the Arkansas Delta. Quickly pegged as a likely suspect in the murders from multiple sources, including his own all-too-knowing initial interviews with police, Echols seemed to have adopted his black-clad “figure of the night” persona as a defense against often-rough circumstances. Becoming a self-proclaimed witch and part-time vampire made sense to a mentally ill misfit who could turn his outsider status into a means of drawing attention to himself. Intrinsic to this dark image was the creation of the impression that he was capable of great and weird violence. For those who knew him, it was not surprising that he fulfilled his self-created legend as a dreaded monster. He worked hard at becoming the terror of the town. On the road to infamy, he built up a history of violence that gave credence to an ability to torture and kill. 'According to his discharge summary from Charter Hospital of Little Rock in June 1992: “Supposedly, Damien chased a younger child with an ax and attempted to set a house on fire. He denied this behavior. He reported that his girlfriend's family reported this so that they could get him in trouble. He was also accused of beating a peer up at school. Damien admits to a history of violence. He said prior to admission he did attempt to enucleate a peer's eye at school. He was suspended subsequently from school. He was suspended on seven different occasions during the school year. He related he was suspended on one occasion because he set a fire in his science classroom and also would walk off on campus on several occasions. He was disruptive to the school environment. He was also disrespectful to teachers. He has been accused of terroristic threatening.” Echols had gotten into trouble in one in- stance for spitting on a teacher. Much of this history of violence came from Echols himself. His teenage acquaintances told grisly stories about Echols' casual cruelty. Joe Houston Bartoush, Jason Baldwin's cousin, offered another insight into Echols' violent character; a portion of Baldwin's “alibi” centered on the fact that he had cut the lawn of his great-uncle Hubert Bartoush, Joe's father, on May 5. On June 14, 1993, Detective Bryn Ridge was interviewing Hubert when Joe Bartoush volunteered a statement. Joe, in his early teens, said he and Echols had been walking down the road west out of Lakeshore into a field when they came upon a sick dog. Echols grabbed a brick and began attacking the dog. Joe told Ridge: “On 10-27-92 I was at Lakeshore Trailer Park with Damien Echols when he killed a black Great Dane. The dog was already sick and he hit the dog in the back of the head. He pulled the intestines out of the dog and started stomping the dog until blood came out of his mouth. He was going to come back later with battery acid so that he could burn the hair and skin off of the dog's head. He had two cat skulls, a dog skull and a rat skull that I already knew about. He kept these skulls in his bedroom at Jack Echols house in Lakeshore. He was trying to make the eyeballs of the dog he killed pop out when he was stomping. Damien had a camouflage survival knife to cut the gut out of the dog with.” Joe was sure of the date of the dog killing because he had skipped school that day and had been caught. Joe said Echols had used the survival knife to carve his name into his arm on another occasion. A similar survival knife recovered behind the Baldwin home, known as the “lake knife,” was a highly publicized piece of prosecutorial evidence. His former girlfriend also described Echols having a similar knife, and Echols testified that he had owned “a bunch” of Rambo-style camouflage survival knives. Heather Cliett, Baldwin's girlfriend, told investigators of similar animal cruelty: “States that one time at 'The Case Against the West Memphis 3 Killers, Vol. I' the skating rink Damien told her that he stuck a stick in a dog's eye and jumped on it and then burned it.” Timothy Blaine Hodge, a 14-year-old ninth-grader at Marion who lived in Lakeshore, had known Baldwin for some time but only knew Echols since his return from Oregon. “I've heard Jason say that Damien was in the crazy house in Oregon. Damien and Jason were always together. They spent a lot of time in West Memphis at Wal-Mart. They stole a lot of stuff. I always seen just Jason and Damien and Domini together walking around Lakeshore. There was a big black Great Dane dog at Lakeshore that I was on the trail over the bridge to the right as you go over the bridge. It was dead. Its intestines was strung out of his butt. A boy named Adam told me he heard Damien did it.” Chris Littrell, a neighbor of the Echols family and a Wiccan, told the police that Echols liked to stick sharpened sticks through frogs to see how long it took them to die. He said Echols claimed that he had burned down his father's garage and then stood in the flames chanting. Echols told Murray Farris, another teen who was a Wiccan, that he once poured gasoline over his own foot and set it aflame. Reports of Echols planning to sacrifice his own child in a ritual were persistent. Littrell told police that Echols did not intend to kill the baby that Domini was expecting, as the child would entitle him to a larger government check. The story surfaced after Echols was arrested with Deanna Holcomb as they attempted to run away. Jerry Driver, the juvenile officer in charge of the Echols case, mentioned the baby sacrifice rumor on June 1, 1992, in a phone message to Charter Hospital, where Echols was taken for his first hospitalization for mental illness. The message read “Court-ordered to Mid South Hospital. Suicidal, self-mutilating -- made pact ... girlfriend & Devil to sacrifice 1st born.” A psychiatric evaluation at Charter dated June 2, 1992, stated: “There was a conversation that concerned staff at the detention center. Reportedly Damien and his girlfriend were going to have a baby and then sacrifice the child. Damien denies this type of behavior.” The discharge summary on June 25 repeated that information, as did the discharge summary on Sept. 28 after his second trip to Charter. The Sept. 28 discharge summary also noted that Echols had been on probation for threatening his girlfriend's parents and for a charge of second-degree sexual misconduct stemming from having sex with his underage girlfriend. Driver's dealings with Echols dated from that ar- rest on May 19, 1992, when Damien and Deanna were found partially clothed in an abandoned trailer at Lakeshore. In a series of contacts with law enforcement over the next year, Echols described a network of occultists active in Crittenden County. In turn, Echols consented to have his home searched and officials confiscated Echols' notebook, full of somber and morbid poetry, and artwork from his bedroom, full of demonic and occult images. Driver believed a drawing of four tombstones, with a baby's foot and a rattle, under a full moon, indicated Echols' plan to sacrifice his own child. Deanna told West Memphis police on May 11, 1993, well before the arrests: “I found out that he planned to kill our first born if it was a girl. Damien would not do it. He is a coward and would have tried to get me to do it. That's when I knew he was nuts and I had nothing else to do with him.” Stories about Echols drinking blood were similarly persistent and pervasive. The West Memphis Evening Times ran a story quoting an anonymous girl who said she had seen Echols drink the blood of Baldwin and Domini. The same story quoted a Lakeshore resident who said that dogs had come up missing in the trailer park. Schoolmates often asked Echols if he drank blood, and he didn't deny the practice. The Sept. 28 discharge summary from Charter noted that, “While at the Detention Center, he reportedly grabbed a peer and began ‘sucking blood from the peer's neck'. According to Damien, he relates that the peer was aware that he was going to do this. Staff reports that Damien was not remorseful for his behavior. Damien indicated that he sucked blood in order to get into a gang. He denies it was any type of ritual. … “Damien laughed when he was called a ‘blood sucking vampire'. He relates that he does not know why people think this.” After an office visit on Jan. 25, 1993, his therapist noted that Echols believed he obtained power by drink- ing the blood of others, that the practice made him feel godlike. At trial, John Fogleman asked Dr. James Moneypenny, a psychologist from Little Rock testifying for the defense, “In your business, is it not unusual to find people telling you about drinking blood, and that they do it to make them feel like a god?” “It's highly unusual,” said Dr. Moneypenny. “It's what?” “It's not usual at all,” said the psychologist. “It is very atypical. I think that represents some of the extremes of his thinking and beliefs and what it has come to for him.” Driver found that Echols was not the only blood- drinker in his circle of friends. Driver had transported Domini to Charter Hospital after she broke probation on a shoplifting charge. “She discussed with me the blood- drinking and said ‘Why should I not drink blood, because my mother drinks blood?' and I thought, now that's a strange thing to say.” Domini, consistently dismissive of the most damaging evidence, denied making this statement. While there is little else to suggest that Baldwin was an avid blood-drinker, testimony from a fellow detainee at Craighead County Juvenile Detention Facility centered on a gory confession made to Michael Carson. Carson, a 16-year-old admitted drug user, testified, “I said, just between me and you, did you do it. I won't say a word. He said yes and he went into detail about it. .... He told me how he dismembered the kids, or I don't know exactly how many kids. He just said he dismembered them. He sucked the blood from the penis and scrotum and put the balls in his mouth.” Carson stood by his testimony when reports sur- faced in 2000 that he had committed perjury. Carson said he didn't cut a deal in exchange for the testimony. He had passed the polygraph before testifying. Christy Jones, a friend of Misskelley's who had attended school with Damien, told police on Oct. 1, 1993, about Damien “I saw him cut his arm with something and he then sucked the blood out of the wound. I had heard that Damien was weird and part of a satanic cult.” The evidence of his cruelty to animals continues to dog Echols. When such talk surfaced on Twitter in 2013, Echols referred to the many stories as “animal lies” and suggested that, if the stories were true, they would have showed up in the court record. After all, Damien's dad, Joe Hutchison, had told the “Paradise Lost” documentary filmmakers: “This boy is not capable of the crime that he's been arrested for. I've seen him take a little kitten and love it just like you love a little baby.” Considering that Echols intended to sacrifice his own little baby, Hutchison's statement held a certain ironic truth. Documentary filmmakers have made no mention of Damien's history of torturing animals, drinking blood and planning human and animal sacrifices. https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Black-Against-Memphis-Killers/dp/0692802843/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=gary+meece&qid=1549834053&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull https://www.amazon.com/Where-Monsters-Go-Against-Memphis-ebook/dp/B06XVNXCJV/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_3?keywords=gary+meece&qid=1549834053&s=gateway&sr=8-3-fkmrnull https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-West-Memphis-Killers-ebook/dp/B07C7C4DCH/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_4?keywords=gary+meece&qid=1549834053&s=gateway&sr=8-4-fkmrnull https://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-West-Memphis-Killers/dp/B071K8VNBM/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_6?keywords=gary+meece&qid=1549834053&s=gateway&sr=8-6-fkmrnull https://www.facebook.com/WestMemphis3Killers/ https://eastofwestmemphis.wordpress.com http://callahan.mysite.com https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Black-Against-Memphis-Killers-ebook/dp/B06XVT2976/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_2?keywords=gary+meece&qid=1549834053&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmrnull
Thoughts? Comments? You can contact me by calling or texting 1-201-429-0274. If you leave a voicemail please be aware, you only have 3 minutes. Email me at improveandhavefun@gmail.com Join the conversation on the blog by going here https://bit.ly/2wJckfl ..Thanks for watching/listening! There are affiliate links in the show notes. BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS-Robert Cialdini's 'Influence' This book was tough to get through. It felt like I was back in school and I was doing homework. I did glean some useful information from here. This material I feel is especially useful if you're in sales, a public figure working on attracting others to you(what I'm doing with this podcast), or being an everyday consumer and knowing when someone is trying to 'sell' you on something. These are some of my biggest takeaways from Robert Cialdini's 'Influence': -'One favorite and profitable tactic of certain compliance professionals is to give something before asking for a return favor.' Page 49. A great sales tactic! -'Even though they had committed themselves under anonymous circumstances, the act of writing down their first judgments caused them to resist the influence of contradictory new data and to remain consistent with their preliminary choices.' Page 72. This goes hand in hand with first impressions. -'The general idea is to pave the way for a full-line distribution by starting with a small order...Look at it this way-when a person has signed an order for your merchandise even though the profit is so small it hardly compensates for the time and effort of making the call, he is no longer a prospect-he is a customer.' Page 64. -'Oh, those 'harmless' concessions. We've already seen how apparently trifling commitments can lead to further consistent behavior. As a commitment device, a written declaration has some great advantages.' Page 67. I feel this also applies if you sign up online for an email list, a subscription as examples. Signing up makes it real as opposed to committing superfluously. -'No matter which variety of low-balling is used, the sequence is the same: An advantage is offered that includes favorable purchase decision. Then sometime after the decision has been made, but before the bargain is sealed, the original purchase advantage is deftly removed.' Page 85. Sign up now at this discounted price for Verizon FIOS, it includes a year of Netflix. But after a year you pay the full monthly, regular price. -'What if physical appearance is not much at issue? After all, most people possess average looks. Are there other factors that can be used to produce liking? As both researchers and compliance professionals know, there are several, and one of the most influential is similarity. We like people who are similar to us.' Page 148. This is fascinating, it's from a chapter which also discusses how we are quicker to gravitate to someone selling to us, particularly if they are physically attractive. But this gives credence to the fact that you don't have to have looks to make something happen. -'A potentially effective strategy for reducing the unwanted influence of liking on compliance decisions requires a special sensitivity to the experience of undue liking for a requester. Upon recognizing that we like a requester inordinately well under the circumstances, we should step back from the social interaction, mentally separate the requester from his or her offer, and make any compliance decision based solely on the merits of the offer.' Page 172. A great tip for everyday consumers. -'According to the scarcity principle, people assign more value to opportunities when they are less available. The use of this principle for profit can be seen in such compliance techniques as the 'limited number' and 'deadline' tactics, wherein practitioners try to convince us that access to what they are offering is restricted by amount of time.' Page 225. -'Although we all wish to make the most thoughtful, fully considered decision possible in any situation, the changing form and accelerating pace of modern life frequently deprive us of the proper conditions for such a careful analysis of all the relevant pros and cons. More and more, we are forced to resort to another decision-making approach-a shortcut approach in which the decision to comply(or agree or believe or buy)is made on the basis of a single, usually reliable piece of information.' Page 234. I would say this being the case, especially in our present-day, short-attention-span society. If you enjoyed this material, please support the author and myself by buying this book through the provided Amazon link. Thank you! LINKS Robert Cialdini's Influence https://amzn.to/2Q9pbiX Going Where the Wind Blows After a day's work, I enjoy coming home, eating dinner and watching YouTube, Netflix or Amazon Prime on my iPad. I'm always looking for something to watch. I finally committed to watching Orange is the New Black. From the beginning. I barreled through five episodes(of the first season)in the two days. The show was funny, smart and very entertaining with some drama. Once I started to notice that a few of the storylines run together and that several episodes were self-contained(like the chicken episode), I decided to go straight to the three final chapters of the season, and it didn't seem like I missed much. But where I really started resonating with the show was in one of Piper's characteristics(she is the main character). She seems to go where the wind blows. People she cares about end up suffering because of this. This spoke to me because I've done this often. On this very podcast, I've stated numerous times that 'I've discovered this new technique, approach, skill and I want my world to revolve around it because it will give me some edge or I had a dream about my mother and I should go and move back in with her.' I tell anyone who will listen to me about this new thing. I'll try it for a bit, then drop it and go back to my regular patterns. Some of these new ideas have stuck. Most haven't Examples being; gaining inspiration from the Scavenger Life podcast and listing an item every day on eBay. I'd begin that for a week then go back to listing 3-4 things a week. Another instance was watching YouTuber Casey Nesitat. I thought I want to start vlogging because it seemed like fun. Maybe I can get millions of YouTube views, make some money I thought! I purchased a ton of video equipment. Quickly I realized my bookbag is heavy enough and I don't want to travel with all this gear. There are pros and cons to trying new things. The ONE Thing book says you should put your time and energy into what you enjoy and already have some proficiency in. On the flipside on a recent day off I listened to a combination of MWF podcast (episode 472), Marie Forleo's podcast interview of Jaclyn Johnson, and Tim Ferriss interview of Drew Houston. The alphabet soup message I got from listening to these podcasts is to try many things and fail because you don't know what you are good at and can potentially love until you discover it. Also, straight quitting on something is a waste of time. Because if you failing, you're learning. Apply what you've learned on the second go round and continue growing/failing/learning from there. But if you quit, you have truly wasted your time if the lesson learned from the failure isn't used. So is trying different things a waste of time? Does this take away from working on your main goal? When I pay attention to my patterns, I don't regularly do much of the stuff I discovered in a book, podcast, a video. But now I'm starting to notice my time spent other than on my creative endeavors and it makes me feel guilty. I spend 3-4 hours at night watching TV. At work when I'm not 'working' I'm on the internet looking at entertainment news. I believe there is a time to procrastinate. If I spent all my time documenting and creating, I'd get sick of it. Even if I do so for little bits at a time, I dance, draw, write a little bit every day or every other day. Weekly I work on the podcast. Small actions done consistently make big things happen. Piper Chapman is free-spirited and determined, and I like that. Thanks to this fictional character for showing me my own indecision and going where the wind blows. 9 times out of 10 I believe many answers to my own questions exist within me. I just need a reflection of myself in others, in a movie, in a book, in a podcast, to find it. LINKS What is 'Orange is the New Black? https://bit.ly/1QNWvqg The ONE Thing book https://amzn.to/2wOZigd You are Born with Love I was listening to the audiobook version of Marianne Williamson's 'Return to Love' for the 3rd time. Presently I'm highlighting sections of interest in the ebook on the Kindle app. Using this new method will help create more content for the podcast. Reading and now listening(more often)I'm completing more books. My brain is getting bigger!! In the early part of the book, Mrs. Williamson talks about how we are born with love, how it is our nature. Fear is something we learn. This is the quote here from page 4: 'Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the relinquishment-or unlearning-of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts. Love is the essential existential fact. It is our ultimate reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others is the meaning of life.' These next quotes come from 'Way of the Peaceful Warrior' by Dan Millman. I will link the connection I've made to the previous quote right after. This is on page 159. 'As a child, all this would appear before your eyes and ears and touch as if for the first time. But now you've learned names and categories for everything: 'That's good that's bad, that's a table, that's a chair, that's a car, a house, a flower dog, cat, chicken, man, woman, sunset, ocean, star.' You've become bored with things because they only exist as names to you. the dry concepts of the mind obscure your direct perception." "You now see everything through a veil of associations about things, projected over a direct, simple awareness. You've 'seen it all before': it's like watching a movie for the twentieth time. You see only memories of things, so you become bored, trapped in mind. This is why you have to 'lose your mind' before you can come to your senses." The mind is a powerful, multipurpose device. According to these recent books I've read(including Eckhart Tolle's 'Power of Now'), it can be problematic when it starts going in all directions. Unrelated thoughts to the task at hand, hang-ups from the past. Worrying about the future. Jealousy, lack of focus, ego, envy. This is my mind's wheelhouse when it starts running around the neighborhood like a dog off its leash. Let's say a co-worker, I feel does not appreciate a small gesture of kindness which I've imparted. My ego is hurt. I start to think, 'next time I will let them earn my generosity, my love.' This egoic sentiment is learned. I wasn't born with this. I, like so many of us, was born with passion, curiosity, no fear. There is a method to combat this(which I learned from the books mentioned above). Basically to turn off your mind. The times I notice when my mind is turned off; when I'm watching TV, listening to podcasts or when I'm drawing. Now when my mind and emotions are all over the place, I gently tell myself 'Attention! Be here now. How's your breathing? How's your body feeling, what's your posture like?' It's not easy, it's tough. In the past, I would knock myself for turning my brain off and going on auto-pilot. I would talk down to myself, badly. Listening particularly to Mrs. Williamson's book, it's reminded me how toxic this is. When is it a good time to flip the switch and turn on my mind? Solving issues, problems. Focusing. At work, I've been making fundamental mistakes. Like being late to work, or not crossing all the 'T's' or dotting the 'I's.' I used my mind and came up with solutions. I started waking up 10-15 minutes earlier to prevent being late; I also started keeping a log of all my work, as a reference point to follow up on what I'd already done. I'm happiest when I'm coming from a place of fearless love and generosity to my family, friends, co-workers. I want to re-discover my childlike curiosity. Honestly, when my ego shows up, or out of fear I put up my defenses, I'm a lesser version of myself. When I put someone down mentally or judge them, I'm putting myself down because how I see another human being, in essence, is how I look at myself. This is a benefit of the negative emotions. It shows me my capacity, where I need to show more love, forgiveness, patience, compassion or allow things to be. I realize I've written these articles on all these beautiful lessons I learn through books, podcasts, and videos. I want to try to incorporate many of these lessons. Most don't stick unfortunately as I fall back into my patterns and behaviors. But that doesn't control me. I do. I'm not perfect; I want to be better. This lesson regarding the mind is one of the most impactful I've learned. I want it to stay with me. LINKS Marianne Williamson's 'Return To Love' https://amzn.to/2oLRTd2 Dan Millman's 'Way of the Peaceful Warrior' https://amzn.to/2wONaLz Eckhart Tolle's 'Power of Now' https://amzn.to/2NRMQCV Crazy Rich Asians REVIEW-SPOILERS I saw this movie over Labor Day weekend. To date, it has been the number one movie in the box office 3 weeks in a row. On a budget of $30 million dollars, it has grossed over $110 domestically. A sequel was already announced a few days after the film's release. Several movie critics I trustingly follow praised this film. The Rottentomatoes score is 93%. I was curious and wanted to check this out. This movie was only ok for me until it got to Colin and Araminta's wedding. Up until this point, the movie was ho-hum, I felt the comedy was forced. I wasn't really invested in the main characters. But I now realize during that first half, seeds were being planted which would pay off by the film's end. The movie takes place for the most part in Singapore. What is shown of this country in this film is gorgeous. The colors pop and are vibrant. I started thinking, 'man I gotta go visit this country!' As I mentioned above the movie really picks up for me after the wedding. Nick's family acceptance angle with Rachel was great. The romance kicked into the next gear with Nick and Rachel during the wedding scene. This is first time(and not the last)where I got emotional. When everyone was tearing up and Nick was mouthing 'I love you' to Rachel. Colin is crying while Araminta is walking down the aisle. Eleanor played by Michelle Yeoh watching all of this happen. You know when you see her, she is not crazy about what's going down between her son and his girlfriend. Good stuff. The strongest performances in the movie were by Michelle Yeoh who plays Nick's mother. She may come across wooden and emotionless but subtle things in the face or how she turns her head, or what she says delivers the point across nicely. Showing how doing little can say so much. Another great performance and familiar face was the beautiful Gemma Chan. I remember her from the TV show Humans, where she plays a humanoid who has emotions. I enjoyed her in that and binged two seasons of it on Amazon Prime. Ms. Chan's(who played Astrid)story, with her husband, the infidelity and accepting oneself as they are and not making excuses because of it I also thought was great. I resonated with this especially when it comes to Nice Guy Syndrome. You can found my articles on that and the related book here. I started caring more about Rachel's character near the end section of the movie. I thought the scenes with her mother and Eleanor at the mahjong game where fantastic. This movie was labeled as a rom-com but I found it more drama/romance than comedy. The comedy was fun but as I mentioned forced at times with Awkwafina and Ken Jeong(from the Hangover series). I smiled and chuckled a bit but that's about it. A beautiful looking movie, nice romance. I hope the sequel is even better. LINKS What is Crazy Rich Asians? https://bit.ly/2JYWlhw Crazy Rich Asians book https://amzn.to/2wPyoVr My Biggest Takeaways 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' https://bit.ly/2oJynxT Enjoyed this? Find all of my content on the website at http://improveandhavefun.com Social Media Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paul_pvp_perez Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pvpluvzlieff Twitter: https://twitter.com/Paul_PVP_Perez Rate, like, leave a review! I will shout you out for sure! If you've enjoyed this, please support this podcast by doing any, all your shopping through my affiliate links: my eBay link: EBAY http://ebay.to/2e5mvmj or my AMAZON link: http://amzn.to/2dRu3IM or DONATE here https://bit.ly/2LD1mwy Thank you! Subscribe/watch/listen here: iTunes http://apple.co/2pnmMqa Android http://bit.ly/2p5fgQx YouTube http://bit.ly/2ixiRo4 iHeartRadio http://bit.ly/2oBLZdX Stitcher http://bit.ly/2p8oTi2 TuneIn http://bit.ly/2oE6xUQ Google Play http://bit.ly/2oEizNZ SPOTIFY http://spoti.fi/2ALfgHr
In the penultimate episode of the series, Chris talks to Michael Peterson himself. In a tense and unedited interview, Mr Peterson tells Chris what he thinks is wrong with the series, re-affirms his innocence and answers some of your listener questions. He also explains why - as heard in the last episode - why he bought three blowpokes while his original trial was still going on.
Pastor Hayes preaches in the eService.
Pastor Hayes preaches in the eService.
Koz and guest cohosts Scott Minarik and Clive Aden (an OG Grown-Ass Men host) had two hours of fun with actor LARRY JOE CAMPBELL of one of the longest-running sitcoms in TV history, 'According to Jim," and comic Matt Lewis (host of the Honkey Ball podcast, along with Showtime's "Masters of Sex" as well as "Beverly Hills Pawn") plus comic Sina Amedson (an apprentice puppeteer with the Jim Henson company, actor in TNT's "Southland" and ABC's "FlashForward" and standup comic seen on Hulu). As always, an ultra-eclectic episode!
Medieval merchants and money: a conference in celebration of the work of Professor James L. Bolton
Tony Moore (Reading) Medieval merchants and money Institute of Historical Research 8 November 2013
Nationwide(1), metal theft has become a serious problem since about 2005, according to(2) a 2010 report on metal theft by the U.S. Department of Justice. That's when metal prices rose substantially(3). In 2002, for example, copper prices hit a record low(4), falling to 65 cents a pound. By 2006, it was worth $4 a pound, prompted mainly by the industrialization(5) of Asian countries. One figure(6) was available for copper losses. According to a survey, about $20 million worth of copper was stolen in(7) more than 50,000 incidents at U.S electric utilities in 2008. Another indicator comes from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which reports that claims(8) for metal theft are up significantly. 'Nationwide' is similar to 'nationally' or 'national'. a. The program is being broadcast nationwide. b. There will be educational improvements nationwide. 2. 'According to' is used in front of persons, organizations, or bodies of information, such as surveys or polls. a. According to a recent survey, women prefer the color green to blue. b. According to the boss, we can't have another raise. c. According to the weather update, we will get snow tomorrow. 3. 'Substantially' is a difficult word to pronounce, so let's practice it in sections Sub – stan – tially sub – stan – tially sub – stan – tially 4. 'Record low' similarly to 'record high', is used for financial decreases or losses, and also temperature changes. Occasionally, it is used for emotion. a. Record low temperatures have been reported nationally. b. The value of gold is at a record high. c. He told me that his confidence is at a record low these days. ' 5. 'Industrialization' is a long word and needs to be practiced In-dus-triali-zation In-dus-triali-zation In-dus-triali-zation 6. 'A figure' can be a shape, the shape of a person, or a number. a. That dress suits her figure. b. Write the correct name under each figure on the math sheet. c. The latest figures show that the stock market has improved. 7. 'Copper was stolen in more than 50,000 incidents'. I'm going over this phrase to talk about the use of 'in'. 'In' is referring to the incidents of theft, the occurrences 'in' which the thefts took place. You will more usually hear the word 'from' with the verb stolen, because often we will mention the person or place 'from' which something was stolen. a. The diamond was stolen from the museum. b. Three cars crashed in the incident. c. Five homes were lost in ten flooding incidents in the state. 8. 'A claim' is a noun, as opposed to the verb 'to claim', though both are obviously related. If you have suffered a loss due to fire, flooding, theft, or some kind of accident, you make or report a claim to your insurance company. a. We will have to make a claim to the insurance company because of the fire. b. They made claims that were false; they just wanted the insurance money. // //
Introduction We are looking this morning at Matthew Chapter 9: 27-34, two astounding miracles and two opposite reactions to those miracles. In the beginning of the universe, right at the very beginning, God created light. When God said, "Let there be light," in effect, He was saying, "I want to communicate. I want to reveal. I want to show Myself. I want to display Myself and put My glory on display." So God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." Then God went about the business of creating things worth seeing. That's one way to look at Genesis Chapter 1. He created the world in all of its majestic glory and splendor. He separated clouds from water below. He separated water from dry land. All kinds of living things, verdant green, and all kinds of colors came on this earth, and then every species of living thing, all of them worth looking at. Then He created people who had eyes, vision, eyesight, the ability to receive, to take in what God has made. David said in Psalm 139, "I praise you, Lord, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." I think that that applies to every aspect of our bodies, but I think there's something spectacular about the eyes, about vision in particular. At this moment, as you're looking at me, or wherever you're looking, whatever you're looking at, your eyes are making literally billions of calculations and adjustments every second. An astounding amount of information is flowing into your mind through your eyes, and you're processing it. I think about some of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. I think about, for example, Acadia National Park, up in Maine, Mount Desert Island, an island right on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. There is one cliff, in particular, that as you're sitting there, you can see, Echo Lake, a freshwater lake, cold in October. I can see the Atlantic Ocean and the rocky coastline as it goes up and down. I can see the trees, and I can see eagles riding the thermals in kind of a spiral pattern, up the 600 or 700 feet up that cliff and then up over my head. As I had watched them fly occasionally in a lazy way they would flap their wings and just gain control for a moment, and they would go over us. There would be large ones and small ones, and we would watch them for hours. Now, as I was looking at that, my brain was processing things more complex than I can even understand. There was the form or shape of the birds. There was the motion. There was the color. There was depth perspective. Science tells us that all of those different aspects of vision are handled at different parts of the brain, and yet we only see one image, that eagle that's flying over our heads at that particular moment. What an incredible thing is eyesight. We are dependent on our eyes for so much, aren't we? So much of our understanding of the world flows in through our sight. Our sight mediates and validates other senses. When you hear or touch or smell something in your world, don't you immediately turn to look at it? Isn't that one of the first things you do? You want to see what it is that you're hearing. In Revelation Chapter 1, John heard a voice behind him of the Lord, the risen Lord. What does he do? He turns to look, and he has a vision of Christ. He hears first, the sound comes first, and then he looks. By the way, that was the order in Genesis, wasn't it? God spoke, "Let there be light, and there was light.” The sound comes first, but then the sight validates what are senses are telling us. Try this some time. Look at something, an object, maybe on a table, look at it for a second or two. Then close your eyes, turn away. And reach out with your hand, and almost invariably, you'll be able put your hand on it. Neuroscientists don't understand that. They don't understand how the vision can lock in a spatial relationship around us all the time. We do it naturally, don't we? I know it, because when I walk into my kid's room at night, when it's pitch black in there, and step on something that's been left on the floor, I realize that all I needed was one second of light, and sometimes I'll turn on the hall light for a second, look in the room and turn it off, and then I can navigate around whatever may have been left there and not put away. I won't bump into their bed or into their furniture. I have set the room in my mind with just one second of light. We depend on our eyesight for so much, don't we? And for that reason, vision, the idea of vision, saturates our language. For example, we speak of insight, something a poet has into the world. Or perhaps you pray for insight when you read the Scriptures, you're asking for insight. Or a foresight. It is something that business analysts are supposed to have to write for the “Wall Street Journal”, or something that a prophet would have into the future, a vision of Isaiah the prophet. What about hindsight? It's said to be 20/20 for people who are regretful of something that's happened in the past. Or this expression, "Out of sight, out of mind." That's an excuse for forgetful people. Or, ”We shall see." What does that mean? "We will experience. We will find out. We will learn. We will discover." The scripture is filled with the word "behold." In Greek, it's "idou," and in Hebrew, "hinneh." "Behold, something happened." It means, "Look at this, experience it, take it into you." We're dependent on our eyesight for many things. There's also another expression which I think the text will refute, and that is, "Seeing is believing." Is that true? No, because Jesus did incredible miracles in front of his enemies. Did they believe? No. They saw and yet did not believe. It’s a fascinating thing, seeing is not always believing, not for Jesus' enemies. For this reason, because we are so dependent on our eyesight, a poll was done recently and showed that Americans fear blindness more than any other disability. Think of what your world would be like if you were totally blind. And yet, for all of that, only a few of you, or a certain number of you, have perfect vision. It's perhaps one of the marks of the fall, the effect of sin on our bodies. A quarter of you statistically will have myopia. That means that your lens focus is just a millimeter to the front of your retina, and so you need lenses to adjust it. I think that blind people, therefore, are perhaps among the most courageous people that there are. Think about it. What would it be like to have to move through the world without being able to see? We're going to meet in the text today two very courageous blind people, who would not be stopped, who are going to keep calling after and pursuing Jesus until they get what they want. Modern medical knowledge has made incredible strides. Science, specifically eye science, has come a long way since the Renaissance, when Dr. Georg Bartisch, an eye doctor during the Renaissance, went around healing cataract patients by poking their eyes with a sharp object. It created a little hole and patients could kind of see through it amidst their pain. But no one, not even today, not even here at Duke or at Johns Hopkins, no one can do what Jesus did in the text. Jesus has power to heal blindness. And that power, I believe, was given to him alone in a very unique way. We also have another miracle in our text today, that is the healing of a man who is mute. He was dumb, he could not speak because of a demon. I found it a very interesting symmetry. Through the eyes, we take in. Through the mouth, we speak out. And so Christ is healing the means by which we have to take in the world and then healing the means that one can speak out, hopefully praise to Christ for what He's done. As we've seen in Matthew's Gospel, in these nine chapters, Matthew is step-by-step unfolding the credentials of Jesus Christ to be King of the kingdom of heaven. Right from the very beginning of the Gospel, we have His genealogy, where he lays out the evidence or proof that Jesus is the descendant of David, the descendant of Abraham. He is the Messiah. The genealogy would prove it to any Jew who knew the significance of being the Son of David. We're going to see the term "Son of David" in the text today and from there, we have the evidence in the end of Matthew Chapter 1, and into Matthew 2, of Jesus's supernatural birth, the virgin birth, and what God did at that point. Evidence that He was not just the Son of David, but the Son of God. He was God in the flesh. We've seen, unfolded from there, the miracles and the teachings of Jesus in an incredible way, more evidence than we need to prove the deity of Christ, and that He is indeed the King of the kingdom of heaven. Healing the Blind In verses Mathew 9:27-31, we see two blind beggars who are healed by Christ. We begin by seeing their faith in pursuit of Christ. They're pursuing Christ by faith. Verse 27, "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, calling out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David.'" These were true beggars, they were totally destitute. In the world today, statistics from the World Health Organization tell us that 45 million people in the world are blind, legally blind. Most of them are in the third world areas, their blindness caused by many things — unsanitary conditions, infectious organisms, blowing sand, accidents, war, malnutrition, excessive heat, bright sunshine. Infants are born blind because of bacteria they'll pick up from their mothers as they pass through the birth canal, or through diseases they may get while in the womb. When I was in Pakistan as a missionary, I had the privilege of helping an English eye doctor as he performed surgery on a trichiasis patient, and the problem there was that the eyelids had grown inwards so that all of their eyelashes were rubbing on the surface of the eye every time they blinked. What is it like for you when one eyelash detaches and gets into your eye? Are you a multi-tasker at that point? Can you do many things, or are you going to stop until you get that lash out of your eye? Imagine all of your eyelashes rubbing on your eye with every blink. Eventually you will go blind, literally. The plight of the blind is extreme, isn't it? It's impossible to work. They're stripped of the beauty and the information that we get all the time through our eyes. They're stripped also of hope for the future, because they are literally incurable, in most cases. Nowadays, certain conditions can be cured, but there are so many forms of blindness that even today we will not be able to cure. These two beggars were friends. I guess you've heard the expression, "The blind leading the blind." It actually was something that was known. They would stay together in communities, they would beg together, and they would be together. They were companions in darkness. Now, for all of that, there are some advantages to being blind. And you think, "What possible advantages could there be?" There are spiritual advantages to being physically blind. Blindness strips you of the illusions of self-reliance, doesn't it? You realize you cannot make it alone. You can't eat or survive alone, you must have help. It makes you a beggar. And it's a good thing to be a beggar before Christ, isn't it? It's when you are self-reliant that Christ will do nothing for you. It's when you think that you can do it or make it on your own that Christ has nothing for you. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, and the people who recognize that they are sick will go to Christ for the healing. These beggars are going to pursue Jesus, they're going to follow Him, they're going to cry out after Him, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us." Another thing that blindness does is it makes you bold and impervious to public opinion. You don't care what people think. You need to eat today, so you're going to beg boldly because you need to in order to survive. We get the same thing with Bartimaeus in Mark 10: 46 and following, "As Jesus came to Jericho and His disciples were leaving the city, a blind man named Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was going by, he began to shout, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.' Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.'" He didn't care what people thought, impervious to public opinion, and he's going to pursue Christ until he gets what he wants. In Verse 27 there's an unrelenting persistence for mercy. As Jesus went on from there, it says, "Two blind men followed Him, calling out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David.'" They followed after Christ, stumbling pathetically, blind leading the blind, following the sound of the crowd perhaps, or something, trying to find where Jesus might be. Despite the delay, they keep calling out after Christ. They're pursuing him. And what are they calling for? They're calling for mercy. What is mercy? It means getting something from God that you know you don't deserve. I think grace means not getting from God the things you do deserve, namely wrath and judgment, in addition to all the blessings of the Gospel. But mercy, I think, specifically in this sense, means getting something from God you know you don't deserve. John MacArthur put it this way, these two men came to Jesus not only with a right understanding of His great worthiness, but with the right understanding of their own great un-worthiness. That is the attitude of the heart that the Lord honors and accepts. Christ was the most merciful human being who ever lived. He reached out to the sick and healed them. He reached out to the crippled and gave them legs to walk. He healed the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf, and the mouths of the dumb. He found prostitutes and tax collectors, and drew them into the circle of His love. And He redeemed them and set them on their feet. He took the lonely and made them feel loved. He took little children and gathered them into His arms and loved them. Never was there a person on the face of the earth who showed the mercy of Jesus Christ. They're crying for the right thing, they're crying for mercy. One thing about mercy, by the way, and this is a very important theological point, you can't demand it. You can't say, "I deserve mercy." See, those two don't go together. You can beg for mercy, but you can't demand mercy. These blind beggars were crying out for mercy. They had an uncommon faith, because they called Jesus Son of David. Son of David is a messianic title. They recognized and they believed that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Matthew began his Gospel this very way, in Matthew 1:1, "A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David." Those are the opening words of the New Testament. Jesus was indeed the Son of David. This was later very controversial to the Jewish leaders. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on the donkey, and people are crying out, "Hosanna to the Son of David," the Pharisees are vey angry. They wanted Jesus to make the children stop, and Jesus said, "Haven't you read in the Scripture? Out of the mouths of children and infants you have ordained praise. I am the son of David." But later Jesus himself also had to correct the understanding of "Son of David." He asked His enemies, "What about the Christ, whose son is he?" And they answered, "Son of David." He said, "How is it then that David," in Psalm 110, speaking by the Spirit, said, ‘The Lord has said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ If then David calls Him Lord, how can He be his son?” In a Jewish way of thinking, a father would never call his own son Lord. The son would honor the father and the mother, as Moses commanded. How could it be that Jesus, physically descended from David, will be worshipped by David and called Lord? Where do you think David is right now, and what is he doing? Is he not calling Him Lord and worshipping Him in heaven? He is worshipping his own son, because He was more than just a physical descendant of David, He was the Son of God incarnate in the world. But back to the blind beggars. Leon Morris says, "One of the things we have to recognize about these beggars is that they would have seen nothing about Jesus." Any information they had about Christ came in through hearing. Where does faith come from? Faith comes from hearing the report. The blind beggars actually represent us. Have any of you ever seen Jesus? Have you ever seen him do a miracle, like we're talking about here? No. You're hearing about it this morning. Do you believe? Do you believe, the way that these blind men believed? They got all their information through hearing. Faith comes from hearing, and that's how they knew that He was the Son of David. Jesus is going to test their faith. As He walks by and they cry out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David'? what does He say? Not a word. He keeps walking. They get up, they follow, they're crying out, they continually cry out, the Greek says, after Him. He didn't say a thing. He goes into the house. Is He cold? Is he callous? Is he unfeeling? Not at all. He wants to test their faith. Further more, when they come in to the house- it was probably Peter's house, where Jesus was staying in Capernaum,- he looks at them and says, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" This is very interesting. Ordinarily, the Scripture does not speak of "believe that" when connected with Christ. It speaks of belief in Christ, and as a result of that, believing that He can do many things. He starts with the healing, "Do you believe that I am able to do this thing?" He asked them that question. It's an interesting question, too, because why do you think that they're there? He knows their hearts. He knows they believe. But what does He want? He wants them to testify to it. He wants them to speak their faith in Jesus Christ. "Yes, Lord," they answer. God, by the way, frequently tests our faith, doesn't He? Have you ever felt like this in prayer? You're crying out to Him, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy," and He just walks right by and doesn't even seem to answer? He is testing your faith to see if you'll be as persistent as these blind men who would not give up until they got what they wanted. So, they come into the house, and Jesus tests them further. "Do you believe I'm able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they answer. Then, in verse 29, "He touched their eyes and said, 'According to your faith will it be done to you.'" He touched their eyes. Remember we talked about how Jesus was touchable. Jesus was in the world, incarnate, physical, that He might touch people physically. He did many of His healings by touch. He would lay hands on people and heal them. He didn't need to do it. all He had to do was speak and it would be done. But He loved to touch people, so He reaches out and touches their blind eyes, and says, "According to your faith will it be done to you." Instantly their sight is restored, and I think it must have been 20/20, absolute perfect vision. He touched their eyes and immediately their sight was restored. This astounding miracle, I believe, is utterly unique to Jesus Christ. There is no record anywhere in the 39 books of the Old Testament of a healing of a blind man. It'd never been done. Moses did miracles, mighty incredible miracles to show the power of God. Elijah and Elisha even saw people raised from the dead. Those miracles were done, but this one, for some reason, God reserved to His own Son. Interestingly, after this point, there's no record of it either, except for the scales that fell from Saul's eyes. I think it's different perhaps there. It seems that the healing of blindness in particular was reserved to the Son of God. In Exodus Chapter 4: 11 we see that the giving of sight is a divine activity. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?’” There's a lot of theology in that one verse. Theology of suffering, theology of muteness and blindness. "I can make a man blind and I can make him see again. I can do all of those things, I am the Lord." This recovery of sight was something unique to Christ. The messianic prophecies in Isaiah are clear. Isaiah 29:18, "In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see." Isaiah 35: 5-6, "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert." Isaiah 42:6-7, "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness," this is God speaking to Christ, I believe. "I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." When Jesus began His ministry in Nazareth, His hometown, He got up on the Sabbath and went to read the scroll of Isaiah the prophet. It was unrolled for Him, and He found the place where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the captives," listen, “and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and then He spoke these words, "Today in your hearing, this Scripture is fulfilled." This miracle, this power of recovery of sight to the blind was unique to Christ. It was His special Miracle. He alone had this kind of power. Now notice Jesus says to the blind man, "According to your faith will it be done to you." I've thought about this all week long, and I think this is interesting. There is a direct correlation, in my opinion, between faith and eyesight. Both of them are essentially passive. Both of them essentially take in what God is presenting to you. Does the eye make something red or blue or green? Does the eye make something beautiful or majestic or lofty? No. But it sees it, and receives it and takes it in. Jesus said, "If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light." And so also faith does not make a reality from God, doesn't create something that God wasn't willing to do, but rather by faith we take in what God is doing. By faith, we receive. By faith, we are justified. By faith, we are forgiven. And by faith, these two men were healed. "According to your faith will it be done to you." Archbishop Trent put it this way, "The faith which in itself is nothing is yet the organ for receiving everything. It is the conducting link between man's emptiness and God's fullness. Faith is the bucket let down into the fountain of God's grace, without which the man could never draw water of life from the wells of salvation. Faith is the purse which cannot of itself make its owner rich, yet effectively it enriches by the wealth he contained." And so they had faith for this healing, but sadly they did not have faith for obedience. Look how the account goes on in verse 30-31, "Jesus warned them sternly, 'See that no one knows about this.' But they went out and spread the news about Him all over that region." Their faith did not extend beyond the healing to submission and obedience. I think it's easier to believe for salvation than to obey constantly. It is harder for us to obey the commands of Jesus Christ day by day, moment by moment than it is to trust Him for salvation. It's an incredible thing. They disobeyed Him. There was nothing complicated about the command, "Don't tell anyone about this." You might say, "But, Jesus, why? Why? This incredible miracle, why not publish it abroad?” In many cases, He did want the healing of people to be published abroad. But He is a King, and Jesus did not want them to do this. We can speculate, it could be that He did not want too early an association with this title, Son of David. Could be He didn't want lots of blind people coming for healings, although Jesus did more blind healing than any other kind of healing. But it doesn't really matter, does it? Do we need to understand in order to obey? We really don't. We just need to understand the command, and then we obey. And they understood, and they disobeyed. Healing the Mute In verses 32 and 33, we see the other healing that He does. It's almost inserted here as though it were nothing. In verse 32-33, it says, "While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute, [dumb] spoke." We first see that he has demon eyes, that's the Greek word. It means controlled and really, in one sense, possessed, I guess, by a demon. Realize a demon can possess nothing, because they know their time is short, but the demon had controlled this man so much that the man lost the ability to speak. So we see him dumb, mute. Imagine the tragedy, unable to speak to a loved one, a wife, or unable to speak to a child or a parent, unable to pray out loud, unable to sing praise songs, unable to put out any words at all. Chrysostom said this about it, "The affliction was not natural, but the device of an evil spirit. For this cause, H doesn’t require faith of the mute but straight away heals the disease." So he doesn't ask him anything. He doesn't interrogate him. He just heals him. He drives out the demon. This man was destitute. He was a spiritual beggar, he was without hope and without God in the world, completely without resources, so he was a fit vessel for the mercy of God, and he is delivered. A simple command from Christ, and the demon is gone. The formerly silent mouth is now enabled to speak. Here is where it gets interesting. What did he say? Well, the text doesn't tell us. Did he say "thank you?" Did he praise the Lord? Did he shout, "I can talk again everybody! Look, I can talk!”? Did he speak? The demon had controlled his tongue and silenced it. The power of the demon over the tongue was broken, but the power of the heart over the tongue is not broken and never will be. For out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. So, if the man had a regenerate heart, he would speak regenerate thoughts. If he did not, he would not. Who knows, but that later that week, he was heard gossiping or slandering or arguing or telling an off-color joke. Or perhaps he was heard speaking words of praise and glory to God. We really have no idea. Oh, I hope he used his speaking ability to speak words of praise to God. James put it this way, "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by a man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison." That's what James says about the tongue. I have no idea what this man did. But I do know this, Jesus warned us that how we use this thing, this mouth, will be ample evidence or give ample evidence for our eternal destiny, whether heaven or hell. He put it this way after his enemies did in Matthew 12 the very thing they're about to do in our text, namely ascribed Jesus' healing powers to the devil, they ascribed His supernatural healing power to the devil. Jesus said to them this in Matthew 12: 34-37, "You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him. The evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." We have no idea what this man went out and said. But I do know that his speaking record from that point on was kept in heaven, and all Jesus need to do is look at what he said over those years and he'd know whether he was saved or not. How do you use your tongue? You don't have a demon controlling your tongue. You have a heart which controls your tongue. What does your tongue show about your heart? That's a question, isn't it? Differing Reactions to Healing At that point, we have an assessment of Christ. Amazed and open versus angry and opposing.In verses 33-34, “The crowd was amazed and said, 'Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.' But the Pharisees said, 'It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.'" Christ is on the dock right now worldwide. He is standing there waiting to be assessed, waiting to be judged. It's a very interesting thing, isn't it? Just like Pilate on the judge's seat and Jesus standing before him, we all make an assessment about Christ. Doesn't change who He is, He is God, doesn't change the reality about Him, but we are assessing, we're weighing. The audience, the people watching Jesus at that moment, weighed who He is. The evidence was the same, but the reaction was very different. On the one hand, some people were amazed and open. They said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." They searched back and thought about Moses and Elijah and Elisha and Daniel, and all of those, and none of them had done this. This is a first. They'd never heard it before, and they're ready to believe in Christ. But there were others that were angry and opposing. Perhaps they were jealous of Jesus. Perhaps they were offended by His independence. Perhaps they were angry at His rebukes, and felt prideful. Perhaps they were guilty by His holy example. But they were set against Him forever. Everywhere Jesus ministers, we have a division, every time, into believers and unbelievers. Jesus put it this way, "Do you think that I came to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on, there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two, and two against three. They will be divided. Father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” In John's Gospel, again and again, it says, "But they were divided.” “But the Jews were divided." Again and again it happens. And so in John Chapter 10:19, at this point, it says ,”The Jews were again divided. Many of them said, 'He is demon-possessed and raving mad.'" They ascribed to Jesus the power of the devil, the very same thing we see in this text. But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a man possessed by a demon open the eyes of the blind?" There's a division, and there's going to be a division, isn't there, on Judgment Day? There'll be wheat and chaff. There'll be good fish and bad fish. There'll be division between sheep and goats. Again and again, the images of division come, and the issue is always the same. Just as it was when the bronze serpent was lifted up and all of Israel is divided into two categories, believer and unbeliever, so it will be at the end of the world. Application What application can we take from this incredible miracle story? First of all, the astounding power of Jesus Christ. He creates and He heals, He has power. September 11th in our country showed that shock therapy does not jar anyone out of spiritual blindness. It doesn't matter how many of our buildings will be erased by terrorists. Spiritual blindness will never be healed that way. There is only one Savior from that kind of blindness, and it's the same one that saves from physical blindness, Jesus. When you look at Jesus, what do you see? Do you see an ordinary man? Do you see a myth? Do you see a God among gods? Do you see a great spiritual leader? 2 Corinthians 4:4 says,”The god of this age, [Satan] has blinded the eyes of the world so they cannot see in Christ what He really is.”True conversion occurs, when God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” makes His light shine in your hearts to give you a light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. When you look at Jesus, what do you see? Do you see a Savior? Do you see Him on the cross, dying for you, shedding His blood that you might have eternal life? Do you see that? Do you see Him risen from the dead, showing hands and feet to Doubting Thomas? Do you see that? Or do you see something else? And then secondly, what do you say? Can you speak a word of confession that Jesus is your Savior? Romans Chapter 10 says, “The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we are proclaiming, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with the mouth that you confess and are saved."
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
