Podcast appearances and mentions of George Gallup

George Gallup, the man who gained fame as a poll‑taker, has said, "I could prove God statistically.

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed by a rational public opinion. Today, we malign the misinformed public and dismiss the deluge of frivolous polls. How did the rational public become the phantom public? We tell the story of George Gallup, his critics, and also examine alternatives to political polling. This is episode three of Cited Podcast's returning season, the Rationality Wars. This season tells stories of political and scholarly battles to define rationality and irrationality. For a full list of credits, and for the rest of the episodes, visit the series page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/journalism

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 765, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Warthogs 1: A young warthog's canine teeth eventually grow into a pair of these formidable defensive weapons. tusks. 2: Warthogs stick this long, thin, tufted body part straight up in the air when they run. their tails. 3: A warthog's enemies include these 2 predators that begin with the same "L"etter. lions and leopards. 4: In a movie he's the warthog who befriends young Simba. Pumbaa. 5: For warthogs, home is often an adopted den of one of these insectivores AKA an ant bear. an aardvark. Round 2. Category: Oh, Witty Woman 1: 1893-born wit who reportedly said, "The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue". Dorothy Parker. 2: Lucille Ball once quipped, "The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about" this. your age. 3: Funny lady Roseanne used to joke that she wouldn't do this chore "'til Sears makes one you can ride on". Vacuum. 4: This country singer said, "I was the first woman to burn my bra--it took the fire department 4 days to put it out". Dolly Parton. 5: Erma Bombeck advised, "Before you try to keep up with" them, "be sure they're not trying to keep up with you". the Joneses. Round 3. Category: Iraq 1: It's the country Iraqi nationalists call Iraq's 19th province. Kuwait. 2: Iraq's old name, Mesopotamia, was derived from its location between these 2 rivers. the Tigris and Euphrates. 3: Roughly 75 percent of Iraq's people are Arabs and 20 percent are of this ethnic group. Kurds. 4: After this country's 1948 independence, the armies of Transjordan and Iraq invaded. Israel. 5: Initially set up as a monarchy, Iraq became this type of political order in 1958 as its ensuing "Guard" could attest. a republic. Round 4. Category: "Lock"S 1: Tetanus. lockjaw. 2: This small ornamental case for a keepsake is often worn as a pendant. a locket. 3: Hairstyle popular among Rastafarians. dreadlocks. 4: This phrase meaning the grave of all who perish at sea dates back about 200 years. Davy Jones's locker. 5: In 1690 this founder of empericism outlined his philosophical doctrine in "An Essay on Human Understanding". John Locke. Round 5. Category: They Named It For Me 1: They named a poll after this man born in Iowa in 1901. George Gallup. 2: They named a knot for this Duke who was briefly king of England. Duke of Windsor. 3: She left her mark on Louis XV and her name on a big hair style. Madame de Pompadour. 4: They named a smear after a Greek-American doctor and shortened the name to this. Pap. 5: A territory in Africa and a scholarship in Oxford have borne this businessman's name. Cecil Rhodes. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

On this episode of The Global Exchange, Colin Robertson speaks to Dr. David Coletto and Frank Graves about the issues on top of mind for Canadians and how it will affect policy in 2023. Participants' bios Dr. David Coletto is CEO and a founding partner of Abacus Data and member of CGAI's Advisory Council – https://www.cgai.ca/advisory_council#Coletto Frank Graves is the founder and CEO of EKOS Research Associates Inc., as well as a CGAI Fellow Hosts bios: Colin Robertson is a Senior Adviser and a Fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute – https://www.cgai.ca/staff#robertson Dave Perry is the President of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute – https://www.cgai.ca/staff#Perry What David and Frank are reading: The Pulse of Democracy by George Gallup and Saul Rae – https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/72562 On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder –https://www.timothysnyder.org/books/on-tyranny-tr The Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum – https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621076/twilight-of-democracy-by-anne-applebaum/ Recording Date: 17 January 2022. Give 'The Global Exchange' a review on Apple Podcast! Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on Linkedin. Head over to our website www.cgai.ca for more commentary.

What should we make of political polls? Are they to be trusted? And why are Americans so interested in measuring public opinion?  This week on Now & Then, Heather and Joanne discuss the history of polling in the United States, from the informal tavern visits by allies of Washington and Hamilton, to the rise of George Gallup, to the current polling discourse surrounding the midterm elections. Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history For more historical analysis of current events, sign up for the free weekly CAFE Brief newsletter, featuring Time Machine, a weekly article that dives into an historical event inspired by each episode of Now & Then: cafe.com/brief For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/power-polling-public-opinion/ Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 154 – Why Am I Here – Part 3: Biblical Illiteracy Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. Script: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105); “Your statutes are my heritage forever, they are the joy of my heart” (Psalm 119:111); Psalm 119, verses 105 and 111, New International Version ******** VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. We’re very grateful to be with you as today as we continue the series we began last week on Anchored by Truth. We’ve entitled this series “Why am I here?” To help us continue considering a question that has probably occurred to just about every person who has ever lived. The answer to the question is both simple and profound. We’re all here because God made us. That’s a pretty simple statement but it has profound implications. So, to help us explore some of those implications, today we’re fortunate to have Dr. Gregg Alexander back on the show with us. Gregg is a retired Tallahassee physician who has taught an adult Sunday School class for more than 25 years. As such he has seen humanity from all sides and he is definitely a very deep student of the Bible. GREGG would you like to take a couple of minutes and tell us a little about why you have been such a faithful teacher for your church? GREGG OPENING COMMENTS - VK: One of the reasons we wanted to have Gregg back on the show is because several years ago Gregg did a study series for his Sunday school class on Biblical illiteracy. As we have been discussing in our first episodes in this series in order to develop an answer to the question of why we are here we must understand our role in the created order. This, in turn, means we must recognize that we were created by an almighty, loving God and that God has designated man to bear His image within the created order. The only creature that God made who is said to bear God’s image is mankind. That designation is not given to any other earthly creature or even to the angels. But we cannot fully comprehend what bearing God’s image means if we are not familiar with the Bible. So, we wanted to spend at least one show in this series talking about the poor state of Biblical literacy within our current culture. Gregg, when you did your series on Biblical illiteracy why did you feel that it was so important to take that up as a subject? GREGG: The Church competes in the marketplace of ideas and ideologies. Listeners to Anchored by Truth are probably far more Biblically literate than members of our society at large and that’s good. But we need to understand what is going on in the culture around us if we are to minister effectively to it. Groups like Barna, Gallup, and Pew Research try to keep track of trends, and if they are correct in their analysis, the picture is not good. In 2006, Gallup asked people whether the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Only 26% said “yes” – down from 40% in 1980. The number of people who said the Bible is a collection of stories, fables, myths, history, and teachings increased from 10% in 1980 to 19% in 2006. Consider these numbers as you remember that more than 75% of the respondents were professing Christians. VK: Yikes. That’s pretty scary. 75% of the people responding to Gallup self-identified as professing Christians and yet only 26% said that the Bible is the inspired word of God. And that was 15 years ago and we know that the situation quite likely hasn’t gotten any better. That’s one of the reasons we launched Anchored by Truth. We want to reawaken a widespread understanding that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God. GREGG: And that’s one of the reasons I wanted to come back on Anchored by Truth – to help sound a wake-up call. Plus, you have a good variety of coffee choices in the studio. But aside from the coffee I want people to begin to rediscover that their lives will be richer and more meaningful if they will take the time to really begin to study and dig into the Bible. I would like to serve as a stimulus toward greater and more regular study of the Bible, and greater trust in its ultimate authority for our lives. God wants us to pray and read our Bible. It’s not about hearing someone talk about the Bible, it’s about digging into it deeply. God wants us to be an instrument in His hand, but He needs His instruments to be sharp. VK: Well, I know that you believe that God’s desire for His children to be informed students of His word which is effectively illustrated from a passage in the book of Acts from chapter 17. What specific passage are you thinking about? GREGG: I think that the way Luke describes the Apostle Paul’s encounter with a group of Bereans illustrates our need for scripture perfectly. Acts described the believers in Berea, which is a region in Greece near Thessalonica, in this way: “As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” This is Acts 17:10-11. Note that this part of Acts says that they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” To the Bereans the Scriptures were the test for truth. And, since the time of Christ, the books that have been put together to form our Bible have been revered by Christians as the word of God applicable to all time and all circumstances, and the revelation of the mind and will of God. VK: And frankly there was a time in America when you might have been able to make a similar statement about a large percentage of the population. As the survey information you cited above shows that may no longer be true but at one time it certainly was. GREGG: When this country was founded the Bible was respected by just about everyone, and biblical principles formed the shape and stability of the culture. This was clearly evident in the realm of public education. Children were taught the alphabet using the textbook entitled The New-England Primer, published in 1687. Most, if not all, of the Founding Fathers were taught to read and write using this book which unashamedly taught the Christian worldview. This textbook was gradually replaced by a series of books known as the McGuffey Readers. William McGuffey was a committed Christian who was consumed by two passions: public education and preaching the Gospel. McGuffey presented education from a biblical foundation, and he reinforced biblical principles of life and morality in the lessons. VK: So, it sounds like we started out pretty well in America. In our early history the Bible was not a book that was relegated to church buildings on Sundays as it is so often today. The Bible was a book that was a part of everyday life and not just for adults but for people of all ages. That opens up the question of “what happened?” GREGG: When McGuffey died in 1873 his book underwent a radical transformation. America was changing into a pluralistic society – a melting pot of religions and worldviews. Europe was already reacting to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx; the philosophy of Kant followed by Nietzsche; Europe's increased concern with material naturalism disguised as science in general and Darwin in particular; and a general intellectual rebellion against tradition and authority. The revised McGuffey Readers went totally secular to meet the supposed need of national unity and the dream of America as the place of refuge for the world’s oppressed masses. VK: You know we sometimes think that the secularization of America started in the latter part of the 20th century. A lot of people think of the 1970’s as a decade of “free love” and the anti-institution movement. But you’re saying that the roots of secularization started almost 100 years earlier aren’t you? And along with that secularization there was a steadily diminishing regard for the Bible wasn’t there? GREGG: In general, yes. The secularization of America did not start in period following World War II though it certainly accelerated them. In the latter part of the 19th century the biblical doctrines of salvation, righteousness, and piety, and their biblical examples and references, began to be replaced by civil and social values and morality. McGuffey’s Eclectic Primer of 1836 was published as a “Revised Edition” in 1881, and it contained no reference to God, His sovereignty, or man’s accountability to Him – the revised McGuffey Readers were then wholly secular. And, if all that wasn’t bad enough, in the 1920s/1930s American education came under the spell of John Dewey (1859-1952), a psychologist and philosopher who is the person most responsible for how American children are educated today. Dewey changed the priority of education from acquiring knowledge to experiencing knowledge. In the 1920s, he became known for his criticism of traditional teaching with its didactic delivery of facts to be remembered in favor of a dialectic (the use of logical argument or discussion: a “back-and-forth”) experience of “facts.” VK: So, what you’re saying is that this trend toward a loss of a Biblical worldview began to be reflected in a wide variety of ways and by a large number of people. That reminds me of Galatians, chapter 5, verse 9. “This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!” That’s from the Good News Translation. The English Standard Version says, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” GREGG: So, part of the lump that Dewey’s teaching leavened was author Stephen Prothero who wrote a book in 2007 called Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't. Prothero, who was a professor of religious studies and chair of the religion department at Boston University, was initially a follower of Dewey’s progressive educational model. Having been turned off since high school to the study of history as a mindless accumulation of names and dates, he embarked on an enlightened teaching career using a test-free environment of “challenging conversation.” He quickly learned, however, that students can’t discuss what they don’t know – that there had to be some common knowledge in order to understand what the words meant! Can you imagine how things would be dangerously different if engineering, aeronautics, law, or medicine were taught by “dialectic”? VK: Well, I don’t think I would like to fly in a plane by someone who had not been taught that there are certain facts and laws of physics that aren’t subject to your opinion. And I certainly don’t want a doctor who thinks that anatomy is a subject where cultural trends are a substitute for knowing the difference between muscles and bones. GREGG: Prothero tells an interesting story of a conversation with a visiting professor from Austria who offered some observations on American undergraduates. This visiting professor from Austria said American undergraduates are “very religious” compared to their European counterparts, but they know next to nothing about religion. The European students have compulsory religious education, but wouldn’t be caught dead in a church, and are far less likely to believe in heaven and hell. The Americans, in contrast, are simultaneously religious and ignorant of religion – they attend churches and synagogues but religious ignorance is bliss. VK: We don’t think about that very much. In America religious education is almost entirely confined to seminaries or divinity schools where those happen to appear in a broader university setting. But it is common in European nations for there to be mandatory religious education at all grade levels. But the visiting professor’s observation shows that it takes more than intellectual knowledge to be a follower of Jesus. We must trust with our hearts in Jesus’s atoning work for salvation to occur. GREGG: True, but that does not mean that we can neglect the intellectual, informational aspect of our faith. In America, faith without understanding appears to be the standard among college undergraduates. They are Protestants who can’t name the four Gospels, Catholics who can’t name the seven sacraments or the seven deadly sins (“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers” [Proverbs 6:16-19]), and Jews that can’t name the five books of Moses. VK: And that lack of religious comprehension in college students pretty much mirrors things in other parts of society, doesn’t it? GREGG: Yes. Things are no better in the society/culture at large. For comedians, there are subjects that are almost too easy – sure things that guarantee a laugh. For Jay Leno one late night, it was the Bible. During the taping of one of his television shows, Leno moved through his audience asking people what they knew about the Bible. "Name one of the Ten Commandments,” he said. "God helps those who help themselves?" someone ventured. "Name one of the apostles," Leno told them. No one could. Finally, he asked them to name the Beatles. Without hesitation, the answer came ringing from throughout the crowd: George, Paul, John and Ringo. Leno wasn't spoofing the Bible that evening. He was spoofing our society, which claims a grounding in Judeo-Christian principles and yet – according to a number of surveys – is increasingly losing touch with the Scriptures. VK: George Barna is one of the pollsters who follows faith trends most closely isn’t he? I’ve often seen citations from surveys that he has conducted and they rarely contain good news if you are interested in how well American Christians grasp the basics of their historic faith. GREGG: That’s correct. Evangelical pollster George Barna says that over the past 20 years we have seen the nation's theological views slowly become less aligned with the Bible. Americans still revere the Bible and like to think of themselves as Bible-believing people, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Christians have been increasingly adopting spiritual views that come from Islam, Wicca, secular humanism, the eastern religions, and other sources. That's because we're not reading and studying the Bible. If we don't know what God says is truth, it makes us vulnerable to believing a lie. VK: So, you would share the perspective that we often express on Anchored by Truth – that is important for Christians to fully engage their minds in practicing their faith. And the centerpiece of that practice must be devoting time and attention to understanding and comprehending the Bible. GREGG: I definitely agree that one of the most serious problems in the church today is one of "Biblical Illiteracy.” And unfortunately this problem is limited to those in the world, but it is also present in the church. Another pollster George Gallup has said “Americans revere the Bible - but, by and large, they don't read it. And because they don't read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates." How bad is it? Consider these results from various surveys: • Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels. • Many professing Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. • 60 percent of Americans can't name even five of the Ten Commandments. VK: Wow. That’s pretty startling. I think when I was young just about every kid in my neighborhood would have known those things. GREGG: And it doesn’t stop there. Here are a few more statistics that should stagger anyone who thinks that the Christian faith is important. • 82 percent of Americans believe "God helps those who help themselves" is a Bible verse. • 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. • A survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. VK: 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife? Ok. I don’t know whether that is funny or sad. GREGG: Well, here is one more for you. According to David Eikenberry, youth pastor at Orchard View Congregational Church in Muskegon, Michigan only two of 10 people participating in a recent Gallup survey correctly identified who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. Most thought. The Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham and not by Jesus. VK: So, all of this goes back to the purpose of this series. We are trying to help people develop a trustworthy answer to the question of why we are here. Why are human beings present on the earth in the first place? And in our first two episodes we made the point that for us to have a meaningful answer to the question of why we are here we must understand that we were made by an almighty and loving God. But after the creation of our first parents, Adam and Eve, they rebelled against the one prohibition that God gave them and that introduced sin and death into the created order. But God began a plan of redemption and we know live during a unique time in that plan. We live in the period between the first coming of the Messiah and His planned future return. This points out the need for people to become very familiar with the Bible. It is only from the Bible that we can develop a full-orbed understanding of who and what God is. The Bible gives us as comprehensive a picture of God as the human mind is able to form. From the Bible we learn about God’s unrivaled power, unblemished righteousness, immaculate character, and amazing love and grace. This enables us to have a full appreciation of His glory and majesty and then contemplate our own lives and meanings knowing that the sovereign, royal and perfectly holy God has chosen us to bear His image. GREGG: The first step in Christian understanding is the reading and understanding of the Bible. Therein contains all the truth any person can need for an understanding of God (in all Three Persons); forgiveness of sin, salvation, and eternal life; the commandments of God that we are to follows in order to glorify Him and bring blessings on us; and the moral guidelines for living a righteous life. If we don’t understand these basics I don’t see how people can ever truly understand their purpose in this life. The verse that I have used to best describe the theme of this short series is Hosea 4:6. VK: That verse says, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.” GREGG: And here are a couple of other verses that make the same point that without a knowledge of God's Word, a person has no real direction or guidance in life: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105); “Your statutes are my heritage forever, they are the joy of my heart” (Psalm 119:111); and: “ Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. I wait for your salvation, O Lord, and I follow your commands. I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly. I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you” (Psalm 119:165-169). VK: And, of course, these are just a sampling of verses that we could point to where scripture makes it clear that we must know God’s word if we are to know our purpose in God’s kingdom. But, as we did in our first two episodes, we want to be clear that pursuing meaning for our lives is a journey not necessarily a single destination. We have to meet people where they are so someone in a crisis who is wondering if their life has meaning needs reassurance first. That reassurance comes in the form of knowing there is a God who loves and cares for them and has a plan for their lives. But as the crisis hopefully passes we need to help them move on to a deeper and more sustaining answer. If we don’t, and they don’t, the next crisis will be a question of when not if. GREGG: And those kinds of crises occur more often today than ever before because if they don't know the Bible they can't know the truth about why they are here. If there is a new “religion” in America, it is the religion of “tolerance.” The primary dogma of tolerance comes from religious pluralism, which affirms that all religions are equally valid and deserving of equal respect, and from postmodernism which refuses to commit to any absolute truth. Christianity is clearly out of step with today’s culture. Jesus said this in John14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It’s easy to see how Jesus’ exclusive claim could be very difficult and embarrassing for a child coming up in the pluralistic soup of the last few decades, or for anyone who has grown up in America in recent decades. The paradox of “tolerance” by today’s definition is that Christians lose in two ways. First, the Christian is labeled intolerant of other religions because of the narrowness of his views. Second, Christianity is the least tolerated of all religions. But the paradox of “tolerance” is that our society also loses. Without a firm anchor to the truth people start drifting in this sea of religious pluralism and like any boat that can’t be secured it may be easily swamped by storms or rough waves. As Anchored by Truth is doing in this series we must master the basics about God, man, and purpose from the Bible to truly understand why we are here. If we don’t gain a firm grasp on those basics we may ask the question “why am I here” until the second coming but we won’t get any closer to finding an answer that will keep our boats afloat. Well, before we close I’d just like to thank you for the opportunity to join you on Anchored by Truth. VK: And we’d certainly like to thank Dr. Gregg Alexander for being our guest today. His service to the church has spanned decades and he is certainly an inspiration for all of those of us who are privileged to know him. So, before we go here is a brief summary of where we are in our series about “why am I here.” To know why we are here we must understand the nature of the created order and a few other basics. Those basics include knowing that God created the universe. We need to know this so we can understand the nature of reality. Next, we need to know that the created order fell when man sinned. But that God began a plan of redemption and the key step in that plan was the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. So, to know why we are here we must know how we are related to Jesus. And to get a firm grasp on those first two point we must study the Bible because if we don’t our knowledge of God, Jesus, reality and redemption is going to be incomplete. As always we want to close with prayer. Today let’s listen to a prayer for the renewal of the church. The church is a great place to begin to know what the Bible is saying so we want strong and healthy churches. But for us to be strong and healthy members of the church we have to study the Bible for ourselves. And as we mentioned today scriptural literacy is one of the greatest challenges of our age. ---- PRAYER FOR RENEWAL OF THE CHURCH VK: Before we close we’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes in this series or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.” If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not perfect but our Boss is!” (Bible Quote from the New International Version) Psalm 119, verses 105 and 111, New International Version

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 335, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: "S"Tuff 1: This term for the illegal selling of concert tickets sounds like a bad way to lose your hair. scalping. 2: Alphabetically, he's the last of Snow White's 7 dwarfs. Sneezy. 3: From the Latin for "salted", it's spicy, seasoned meat chopped and stuffed into a tube of intestine. sausage. 4: Attributed to Druids, Greeks and even Romans, this Neolithic site on Salisbury Plain was erected by unknown builders. Stonehenge. 5: In the Bible's Book of Judges, he carried the Gates of Gaza about 40 miles to a hilltop near Hebron. Samson. Round 2. Category: Sports Stadiums 1: Artificial grass named for the site of its 1st installation. AstroTurf. 2: In 1976, the name of this university's stadium was changed from Denny to Bryant-Denny. Alabama. 3: N.Y. stadium that now seats 13000 fewer people than it did 15 years ago. Yankee Stadium. 4: Major League Baseball's oldest stadium is this one in Chicago. Comiskey Park. 5: While Huskie Stadium(-skie) belongs to Northern Illinois University, Husky Stadium (-sky) is this school's home field. Washington. Round 3. Category: "Foo" Finders 1: It's a Chinese-American chopped goodies omelet with gravy. egg foo young. 2: Iron pyrite. fool's gold. 3: "Speedy" term for McDonald's, etc.. fast food. 4: From the Italian for "clowning", it's a 7-letter word for a person given to clowning and joking. buffoon. 5: "Essence of Emeril" is a favorite show on this cable TV channel. the Food Network. Round 4. Category: Fruit 1: The name of this fruit contains the name of the drink of the gods. nectarine. 2: The Medjool type of this is the fruit of a certain palm tree. a date. 3: Raisins are rich in this, symbolized Fe. iron. 4: The Royal Ann type of this fruit is often canned or used to make maraschinos. cherries. 5: It's the most important fruit export of Costa Rica and Honduras. bananas. Round 5. Category: Ask The Audience 1: Audiences were transfixed by an episode of her TV show in which she revealed she had lost 67 lbs. on a liquid diet. Oprah Winfrey. 2: Practice, practice, practice and you too can get to this 2,804-seat NYC venue at 57th and 7th. Carnegie Hall. 3: On Easter Sunday 1939, she sang before an audience of 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial. Marian Anderson. 4: When this Stravinsky work premiered in Paris in 1913, the audience went nuts and began a riot. The Rite of Spring. 5: The Audience Research Institute was founded by this famous pollster in 1939 in Princeton, N.J.. (George) Gallup. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

Pravidelná týdenní rubrika proudového vysílání, ve které si připomínáme výročí spojená se zajímavými osobnostmi. Připravil Ivan Mls.

Integrity begins when you align your words and actions. Mike Horne, Ph.D. is an executive coach who works with leaders to design authentic workplaces where employees can thrive. In today's show, Mike discusses his definition of happiness and how making continual progress is more important than achieving goals. Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro 1:54 Mike briefly talks about his ideas of what being better means and the three roles he has 3:43 Mike talks about what progress means to different people in different areas of life and work and the sense of accomplishment people take from it 5:28 Michael talks about his ideas of progress and how it includes setting goals and current goals he has for himself 7:37 Mike talks about the different approaches you can have in goal setting, and how not necessarily every step of progress has to be defined as a goal 9:34 Mike breaks down his approach and how he coaches leaders to set their goals and make progress towards achieving them 13:02 Mike talks about happiness, the elimination of suffering, and self-awareness 16:21 Michael Kurland talks about how people can become authentic, and the series of events in his life that made him realize his own self worth 19:15 Mike gives his three tips on how to live authentically 21:27 Mike talks about the importance of how a simple hello to somebody can go a long way 23:07 Michael Kurland talks about the reason he left his old job and the changes the new CEO made that pushed him to do so 26:03 Mike gives the various ways you can contact him   Resources Mentioned: Mikes Book "Integrity By Design" - If you or your organization lacks integrity, you're out of alignment with what's important. When work and life are out of alignment, it's increasingly difficult to lead, improve, and drive positive change in teams and organizations.  Gallup - Gallup, Inc. is an American analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C. Founded by George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted worldwide. HP - The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. ExxonMobil - Exxon Mobil Corporation, stylized as ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil.   Quotes Mentioned: "It's nice to say hello to a stranger and I'd say yes at work. You should work in the moment, work in the present, and I don't know what happened to you five minutes before we started or what's going to happen in the five minutes after we are finished. But I know that we have this moment in time together and that when managers show an interest in people, when they create a sense of being in on things, work gets done a lot more easily than it does, you know, tell me about the digit you missed." "Wisdom is always someone else's experience. There are a lot of people, I believe who are not goal directed, who fail to recognize as that the greatest purpose of life time is becoming the person you are. That is our greatest privilege." "As you make progress, as you develop your interests, then you become better, you become more knowledgeable, you have greater depth or breath in that field."   Guests Social Media Links:  Website: https://mike-horne.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehorne1/detail/recent-activity/posts/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikehorneauthor Mike's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1557124313 Buy Mike's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Integrity-Design-Working-Living-Authentically/dp/0975307312

De nos jours, les sondages d'opinion rythment la vie politique et portent sur tous les sujets. On ne saurait concevoir une élection sans accompagner la campagne qui la précède de sondages quasi quotidiens. Mais à quand remonte une telle pratique ?Les Américains, précurseurs du sondage d'opinionOn peut trouver des ancêtres du sondage dans l'Antiquité. On a ainsi retrouvé, sur les murs de Pompéi, des slogans vantant les qualités de candidats aux élections municipales et invitant à voter pour eux.À l'époque contemporaine, c'est aux États-Unis que le sondage d'opinion est né. C'est à l'occasion des élections présidentielles de 1936 que George Gallup, à la tête de son nouvel institut de sondage, recueille, pour la première fois, l'avis d'un groupe de personnes représentatif de la population américaine.Dans le même temps, un hebdomadaire organise une vaste consultation auprès des électeurs. On appelle ce type de référendums officieux un "vote de paille".En prévoyant la réélection de Roosevelt, c'est l'institut Gallup qui remporte la mise, alors que le journal avait annoncé la victoire de son concurrent. Ce succès confère d'emblée une légitimité certaine aux sondages d'opinion.En France aussiLe premier sondage d'opinion réalisé en France est presque contemporain de l'enquête américaine. Il date en effet d'octobre 1938, même si les résultats sont publiés l'année suivante.Il est mené par les soins de l'Institut français d'opinion publique (IFOP), fondé par le sociologue Jean Stoetzel. Les accords de Munich viennent d'être conclus et la situation internationale reste très tendue.Aussi la question posée aux Français fait-elle référence aux risques de guerre. On leur demande en effet s'il faut "mourir pour Dantzig". Il s'agit de ce corridor que l'Allemagne dispute à la Pologne. Soucieux de ne pas laisser la voie libre à Hitler, la grande majorité des personnes interrogées répond par l'affirmative.Mais, à l'époque, de telles enquêtes d'opinion ne semblent intéresser ni la la classe politique ni l'opinion. Ainsi, un sondage portant sur les accords de Munich, en 1938, ne rencontre aucun écho au gouvernement. De même, les lecteurs du journal "Paris-Soir" ne réagissent pas à la publication de l'indice de popularité des hommes politiques. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Explore the brain, consciousness, and the inner traveler inside us all. Neurofeedback, Biocybernaut Institute, Tony Robbins, Alpha Waves, Delta Waves, Theta Waves, Anxiety and Aging, Reduce Suffering, Increase Joy and Happiness, Binaural Beats, Astral Projection, George Gallup, Art of Forgiveness, Brainwaves RuleTM, Institute of Noetic Sciences, Mind, Body, Spirit, Emotions, Ram Das, Thomas Edison Invention Process, Higher Consciousness, Zen Satori, Samadhi, Maya Illusion, Tibetan Buddhism, Dalai Lama, Predicting Time of Death, Shadow Culture, Hermetic Mystic Group, Let Go Let God, Spiritual, Woo, Akashic Records, Physics and Optics, Spectral, Schumann resonances, Gamma Waves, Lambda Waves, Maco Stewart, Steward Petroleum, Identity is synonymous with reality, Quartz, Computer chips, Epsilon waves, Conscious Non Duality, Brain wave training, Library of Consciousness, Four Noble Truths, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Nature, Apathy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Joy, and NMPI. Exclusively on The Actually Connecting Podcast in 2021! To Follow: Dr. Hardt Website: https://www.biocybernaut.com/ FB: @biocybernautinstitute YT: @TheBiocybernautInstitute For more on DAN BRUE... WEBSITE: DANBRUE.COM (the bold click & subscribe) (the brave comment and engage)

Es geht um die Wurst. Jedes legale Mittel ist recht, um das Verbrecherregime an seinem illegalen Treiben zu hindern.Eine Tagesdosis von Hermann Ploppa.Was? Der Ploppa will in den Bundestag? Hatte der Ploppa nicht in seinen Büchern immer wieder gesagt, dass die Bundestagsabgeordneten und die Regierungsmitglieder eigentlich nur Politikdarsteller sind und nur noch das umsetzen, was in Lobbygruppen entwickelt und ausformuliert wurde? (1) Bertelsmann-Stiftung, Atlantikbrücke, World Economic Forum, und wie sie noch alle heißen mögen, bestimmen doch, wo es lang geht. Und hinter dieser starken Gemeinschaft stehen milliardenschwere Global-Oligarchen. Ja, das ist so. Ich will auch gar nicht den Eindruck erwecken, dass sich daran auch nur ein Jota geändert haben könnte. Es ist eher noch schlimmer geworden.Aber seit nunmehr anderthalb Jahren haben wir in diesem Land Zustände, in denen uns von der Fundamentalopposition die Luft immer mehr abgedreht wird. Wir müssen alle legalen Mittel nutzen, um uns Gehör zu verschaffen. Die Regeln des Wahlkampfes ermöglichen es uns, breit in der Fläche zu arbeiten, um Recht und Gesetz, Anstand und Ehrlichkeit in diesen hochgradig kriminalisierten Politik-Betrieb zurückzuholen.Das ist leider schon lange kein Ponyhof mehr. Das Ziel des Merkel-Regimes und ihrer prospektiven Nachfolger-Regime besteht aktuell darin, absolut jedem Bundesbürger experimentelle mRNA-Impfstoffe zu verabreichen. Schon allein nach den offiziellen Zahlen des Paul-Ehrlich-Instituts sind tausende an der Killer-Impfung verstorben. Ich habe noch von keinem einzigen Menschen in meinem Umfeld gehört, der an Corona erkrankt ist (wobei ich die Existenz dieser Krankheit gar nicht leugne). Aber bis in den engeren Kreis meiner Bekanntschaft habe ich unzählige Fälle von teilweise gravierenden Impfschäden bis hin zu Todesfällen vernommen. Was geht hier ab?! Schon bei wenigen Todesfällen infolge eines noch nicht ausgereiften neuen Impfstoffes müsste die Versuchsreihe sofort gestoppt werden. Das momentan in Berlin herrschende Regime macht muntere Fortschritte, mit dem furchtbaren Nazi-Regime jener vernichtenden zwölf Jahre in jeder Hinsicht vergleichbar zu werden.In dieser Situation müssen wir jedes legale friedliche Mittel nutzen, um diesen selbstmörderischen, satanischen Unsinn zu stoppen.Mit Parteien habe ich eigentlich fertig …Der frühere US-amerikanische Präsident Franklin Delano Roosevelt musste, genau wie jetzt der russische Präsident Wladimir Putin, gegen den Widerstand der mächtigen Oligarchen regieren und der Erfolg seiner Politik hing von der Zustimmung der Bevölkerung ab. Roosevelt führte als Regierungsinstrument die demoskopischen Umfragen ein. George Gallup hatte die Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie auf die Befragung der Bevölkerung angewandt und lieferte dem Präsidenten jede Woche Umfrageergebnisse, wie Roosevelts Politik bei der Bevölkerung ankam. Demoskopische Umfragen gehören bis heute zur Morgenlektüre jedes Politikers, der was werden will. Demoskopische Umfrage-Ergebnisse kann man allerdings auch bestellen. Ein beliebter Trick besteht zum Beispiel darin, eine Partei, die später verlieren soll, lange Zeit künstlich hochzujubeln. Um diese Partei dann drei Wochen vor der Wahl kontinuierlich absacken zu lassen und überall zu verkünden, mit dieser Partei geht es bergab. Viele Herden-Wähler werden dann diese Partei nicht wählen. Denn wer will schon bei den Verlierern sein. Keiner will bei den Verlierern sein. Auch das ist eine demoskopische Binsenweisheit.Im Gegensatz zu Präsident Roosevelt sehen aber die Regierung Merkel und auch ihre Vorgänger-Regierungen in den Umfrage-Ergebnissen keine Handlungsanweisung mehr. Es geht schon lange nur noch darum zu testen, wie stark der Gegendruck der Bevölkerung werden könnte, wenn man als Regierung die Daumenschrauben zu stark anzieht. Anders ist es nicht zu erklären, dass bei Umfragen bis zu zwei Drittel der Bevölkerung sich für eine sozial ausgewogene Politik ausspricht.Und die Bundesregierung forciert nun aber genau das Auseinanderklaffen der sozialen Schere: immer weniger Superreiche – immer mehr Arme. Oder Außenpolitik: immer wieder sagen zwei Drittel der Bevölkerung, sie möchten entspannte Beziehungen mit Russland und überhaupt keine feste Anbindung an eine einzige Supermacht. Und was macht die Bundesregierung und überhaupt die ganze Filterblase im Bundestag? Mit jedem Tag binden sie uns mehr an die sterbende Supermacht USA. Obwohl gerade das Afghanistan-Desaster unmissverständlich deutlich gemacht hat, dass die USA sich total isoliert und in unserem eurasischen Umfeld – mit Verlaub gesagt – komplett verschissen hat. Dass sämtliche Bundestagsparteien mitsamt der Bundesregierung eigentlich immer das diametrale Gegenteil beschließen von dem was die Bürger draußen im Lande wollen: das ist unsere Demokratie. Eine höchst seltsame Demokratie... hier weiterlesen: https://apolut.net/warum-auch-ich-fuer-die-basis-bei-der-bundestagswahl-kandidiere-von-hermann-ploppa Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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How We Count People and Sin One of the Twelvea sermon by Rev. J. Christy Ramsey DOWNLOAD A LIVE RECORDING Audio from worship at St Paul’s Lutheran Family, Carson City, NV on April 11.2021 John 20:19-31 Sermons also available free on iTunes One of the twelve. Did you catch that? There’s a lot going on in the scripture. But in the 24th verse, the first line of the second paragraph of the reading, we read this: “One of the twelve.” I caught my breath when I read that this year because I realized there wasn’t twelve. Judas was gone. Eleven. Thomas is not there. He’s absent. Ten. What about that young man that ran away in Mark? Nine. How about that rough old fisherman that denied Jesus three times? Eight. “One of the twelve.” How do you count in a fearful time? How many people are here today? In my day job, I’m the clerk of the Presbytery of Nevada. All the Presbyterian churches in Nevada, a couple lost souls in California we took pity on and a couple others, report to me how many people came to worship last year on average. And they were calling me and say, “What are we going to put down? What’s the right answer? We haven’t met since March. Our average is zero in worship.” What do we put down? Does Zoom count? How about if there’s two in the little boxes? What if there’s just a strange picture of Wonder Woman every week? Is that really a person? And YouTube views. Does that have to be on Sunday? Or what if we took the whole count? And then there’s Facebook. And then sometimes people do all three at once. I don’t know how they do it, but they do it. How are we going to count how many are a part of us in a fearful time? If Jesus, and I’ve asked him, came in and could tell me the number, what would he say? What would he say here? What would he say there? How many are in the room? Scriptures, the author of John seems to think all of them were there. “One of the twelve.” Gallup has something to say. If you know George Gallup and his organization, he’s gone, but the organization goes on. Have you seen the study that just came out? For the first time in the history of this nation church membership is below 50%. The most common membership of church, United States is “none” for the first time ever. Well, we’ve been seeing it coming. It’s been sliding on down. And it’s not just those avocado-eating, toast-eating young people. Even the greatest generations, their percentage has gone down. Every age group, boomers, you name it, everyone, church membership has gone down. We’re at 47%. 1999, not so long ago, we were at 70%. “No religion” is getting a boost. They’ve gone from 8% up to 21%. Others are kind of in that fuzzy crazy thing of, yeah, I’m with you, but I’m never there kind of thing; you know? I don’t know, you know, you don’t have to worry. I’m not a Lutheran. But in Presbyterian church, half of people who claim they’re Presbyterian aren’t. We have no record of them. One out of two Presbyterians aren’t Presbyterian. So there’s those people. Now, you may tell me, Christy, no one joins anything anymore. The Book of the Month Club is way far away. People aren’t joiners. They don’t sign up for things. They don’t go to clubs. I mean, look at the Grange. You know, that used to be great. Not so much anymore. Look at the Masons. Look at all the fraternal and lodges, Odd Fellows, the Moose, all those things are all having trouble. And I said, well, okay, maybe. But are you a member of Amazon Prime? That seems to be doing pretty well. Have you heard about this thing called Facebook? I think they’ve got more members than there are people in the world, sharing their lives, encouraging or discouraging one another, making connections, building up, tearing down. Sounds like something we used to do. Heck fire, even Best Buy is rolling out a membership plan. I don’t know exactly what that would mean, but I’m signing up. And political parties? I don’t know about you, but it seems like a lot more people are joining up political parties. And youth sports. Is there any youth that isn’t a member of two, three organizations? My goodness. So I don’t think we can just say, well, no one’s joining nothing. I don’t think so. So how do we count? You know, this Sunday we skipped over – did you notice there’s two Sundays in the scripture? It’s really unfair for a preacher to have two Sundays in one Sunday’s reading. I mean, you should separate them out because we forget about that first Sunday, and we look at the second Sunday. You know, the one about the proof and the doubt and the goriness that if we weren’t used to it would be rated “M” on the graphic novel; you know? There’s going to be some hand in the side. Ugh. We skip over that. We talk about the proof and the denial and the doubt and the faith and all this other stuff. There are plenty of sermons on that. I got a couple on the Internet, if you’re really desperate. But I want to talk about the first Sunday after Easter. You know, today. Where the Bible says one of the twelve wasn’t there. Well, then there wasn’t twelve there, was there, Bible. Bible knows that. Bible knows that Judas is gone. Bible knows that Peter’s not out in the open. Bible knows that one of the disciples ran away. Yet the Bible still says twelve. What happened that first Sunday with the twelve? Jesus came back, and the sermon went something like this. You might recognize it. There was peace. Peace. There was ritual actions. There was joy. And there was a message. Did you catch it? It closed the service, sermon at the end, classic structure. Jesus said, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Of all the things to say the Sunday after Easter. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Of all the things Jesus could tell them, coming back from hell, rising from the dead, triumphant over the worst the empire could give him, he says about forgiving sins of any, but also warns them about retaining sins of any. Now, immediately, what did we do as a church? We immediately took this little scripture, and we made a huge big patriarchal power structure, hierarchical, ecclesiastical, with all sorts of penance and potions and indulgences and wherefore and courts and censors and discipline and all this. I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind this first Sunday after Easter. He didn’t think that we were going to make some kind of religious industrial complex out of forgiving and sinning and forgiving and penance and rules and what you have to do to get back right. And look who was there that first Sunday? Look who was not? A denier, deserter, doubter, and all of them despairing. And to this group he says “peace.” There’s no peace, Jesus. Rome is after us. The Jewish, our own people are after us. We’re hiding here. But you see, peace isn’t the peace we think of, absence of war, safety from conflict. Peace is much, much more than that. Peace is everything is where it should be. Everything is in its place. Everything is fitting. Everything is cozy. Everything is the way that God wants it to be. Peace, peace. The twelve are here because God’s peace is here, and all is where it should be. Peace. But if you think of peace as the way God wants the world to be, where everything is fitting, where everybody has what they need to live, where everything is cozy, if you will, then you can understand sin. Sin is not some morality play, some purity test, some list of morals or do’s and don’ts. It isn’t about a dress code. It isn’t about a date code. It isn’t about what you pledge to do or not do on a certain time and place. Sin is not doing God’s will. If you are not conforming, if you’re going against what God wants you to do, that is sin. Which is the opposite of peace. Peace is what God wants the world to be like, what relationships should be. Sin is when we don’t do that, when we rebel. When we don’t do what God wants. When we do things for selfish things. When we don’t have our place in society and with people. And you could think of that first Sunday. You think this is a tough worship service? Mass? Social distancings? No coffee? No hugs? Imagine those people back then. That was a bad Sunday. Jesus dead. Doors locked. Fear of the authorities. Peace. To this he says “peace.” To them he says the world. Let’s not talk sin. Let’s talk about it. If you forgive the way the world is not like what God wants, if you can forgive the way people are not the way God wants them to be, well, then they are forgiven. And I think there were some uncomfortable looks around the room. Was a denier there? Did people kind of look to the side? Say that guy, that guy we have to forgive? God wants peace between me and that guy who couldn’t even say he was with us the time we needed him? Was there a couple people? You know there was. That looked at that empty chair where Judas always sat, you know, that’s where he was. He was just there last week. One of the twelve. That guy. I hate him. You tell me to forgive him? Our things will still be broken. Or the guy who ran away, not named, in Mark. Was he there? Was the guy who locked the door, oh, we’ve got to. You never know, things are coming to get us. You know who this is. Conspiracy theory guy. He’s everywhere. Even back then. We’ve got to make up with him? What about Thomas? Thomas. He didn’t even show up. We haven’t seen that guy. He’s given up. I hear he went back to work. Him? If you forgive, that’s a lot more tough than some kind of purity test or some kind of moral law, to hear Jesus say you get right with the folks that aren’t the way God wants them to be. And that will fix things. And then there’s judgment. He warns those folks because he knew. He could read a room. He looked around, and it’s, oh, geez, I’m going to come back next week. You guys got some homework. If you don’t do this, if you retain, if you keep this up, if you keep acting like this, the way God wants the world to be will continue to be broken. The world will continue to be in sin, meaning not the way God wants it to be. If you want to save the world, you can’t keep going after the folks and the things that don’t measure up to God, God’s will. How do you get rid of sin? We might say repent. We might say get on the right course. We might say penance, depending on our tradition. We might say confession. We might say a lot of things. But the Bible today says the way to get rid of sin is to forgive. To forgive. And are forgiven. And if you don’t forgive, if you retain, if you’re still mad at Peter, you’re still mad at Peter for not having the guts to stand up and support you, if you’re still mad at Thomas for not showing up on Sunday like he’s supposed to, if you’re still mad at Judas, well, then, guess what? Sin’s going to continue. The world’s not going to be the way God wants it to be. And there will be no peace. And I’ll be here next week and see how you’re doing. Somebody was listening. Somebody took it to heart. Somebody went out to Thomas. You know, they didn’t say Thomas, oh, you really missed something, Thomas. Shame on you for not showing up. Thomas, we have seen the Lord. We have seen what God wants for the world. We have seen Jesus. Here’s our faith. I know you don’t have any. Here’s some. And even though he was a jerk about it, and don’t raise a hand, but how many people you talk to are jerks about things now? Yeah, they’re out in force. Even though he was a jerk about it and says, well, I ain’t calling you a liar, but you’re lying. Unless I see it, it didn’t happen. You still invite that guy to church? They did. They listened to Jesus. And the next week the doors were shut. They weren’t locked. At least they didn’t say they locked. They were just shut. Progress, not perfection. You know, Jesus answered him, asked him, have you believed because you’ve seen me? I wonder what Thomas would say? Because you know what, he didn’t actually, we don’t have actually that he didn’t actually poke Jesus like he said he had to. He didn’t actually slide his hand in there. At least it’s not in the Bible that he did that. I’m wondering if Thomas said, well, not because I saw you. I’m here because of these guys. Even after me being a jerk and abandoning them, they came and got me. And I didn’t see you. I didn’t poke you. I didn’t look at your wounds before I came to church. I’m glad you’re here. But the reason I’m here, the reason I’m being faithful is because of these people around me that told me I didn’t have to be perfect, that they forgave me when I abandoned them. That they forgave me for being a jerk and not believing them. And that’s what healed me. Nothing that I did. But the love and forgiveness that the other people have shown to me, that’s what got rid of it. You know, if they didn’t go after Thomas and tell him and invite him, if they retained his behavior that God didn’t want, I wonder if the Bible would say eleven instead of twelve. Friends, we’ve got some work to do. Going to be a tremendous adjustment as we come to something else other. Already, you’ve already done that, I applaud you. Are we retaining sins or forgiving them? Are we forgiving that things aren’t the way God wants them to be and pronouncing peace? Everyone has a place, and you fit in here somehow. We’re going to make it work. Or are we going to retain the brokenness and the way things God doesn’t want to be? Seems like it’s up to us which way we go, whether we have peace, where everyone is forgiven and loved, or we don’t have peace, where everybody is separated and not counted. There’s a poem by Ruth Etchells, found it on Facebook. You know, that membership thing. The Ballad of the Judas Tree by Ruth Etchells In Hell there grew a Judas Tree Where Judas hanged and died Because he could not bear to see Hs master crucified Our Lord descended into Hell And found his Judas there For ever hanging on the tree Grown from his own despair So Jesus cut his Judas down And took him in his arms ‘It was for this I came’ he said ‘And not to do you harm My Father gave me twelve good men And all of them I kept Though one betrayed and one denied Some fled and others slept In three days’ time I must return To make the others glad But first I had to come to Hell And share the death you had My tree will grow in place of yours Its roots lie here as well There is no final victory Without this soul from Hell ‘ So when we all condemn him As of every traitor worst Remember that of all his men Our Lord forgave him first. From the Church of Scotland website for Easter Day The audio and transcript are from the Saturday version. Here is a YouTube of the Sunday Service

Welcome to the Just Trivia podcast episode 16, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Feeling "Ill" 1: It's the "Prairie State" Illinois. 2: A large stiff feather, or a porcupine spine Quill. 3: The rate of this in Gambia is about 60 percent illiteracy. 4: From the Latin for "illegal" or "against the law", it can denote certain activities or drugs Illicit. 5: Spock knows it means something that makes no rational sense illogical. Round 2. Category: Ask The Audience 1: Practice, practice, practice and you too can get to this 2,804-seat NYC venue at 57th and 7th Carnegie Hall. 2: Audiences were transfixed by an episode of her TV show in which she revealed she had lost 67 lbs. on a liquid diet Oprah Winfrey. 3: On Easter Sunday 1939, she sang before an audience of 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial Marian Anderson. 4: When this Stravinsky work premiered in Paris in 1913, the audience went nuts and began a riot . The Rite of Spring 5: The Audience Research Institute was founded by this famous pollster in 1939 in Princeton, N.J. (George) Gallup. Round 3. Category: Fast Food Nation 1: Among the items you can have your way at this chain are its chicken fries and its chicken tenders Burger King. 2: This fast food giant has resumed its Monopoly game McDonald's. 3: Crispy Strips and Original Recipe chicken KFC. 4: For his "Super Size Me" documentary, Morgan Spurlock gorged himself on 3 meals a day at this chain for 30 days straight McDonald's. 5: "Oven toasted tastes better", according to this sandwich chain with more than 3,000 restaurants worldwide Quiznos. Round 4. Category: Panda-Monium 1: The red panda's funny walk is usually described as this 6-letter gait, due to its front legs being angled inward waddle. 2: After he visited China in 1972, he received a gift of 2 pandas named Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing Nixon. 3: In 2011 martial artist Po transitioned from the big screen to big-screen TVs in this title: "Legends of Awesomeness" . Kung Fu Panda 4: To aid in feeding, pandas have evolved an elongated wrist bone that functions like this digit in humans a thumb. 5: In 2011 martial artist Po transitioned from the big screen to big-screen TVs in this title: "Legends of Awesomeness" . Kung Fu Panda Round 5. Category: Things That Go Bump 1: These ridges that are made to force cars to slow down can give them quite a jolt speed bumps. 2: In the sport named for it, it's bumped, set, and spiked volleyball. 3: They're small electric vehicles found in amusement parks bumper cars. 4: It's what the poker player "sees" and bumps a bet. 5: It's bump's partner in a striptease a grind. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!

Janice Litvin is on a mission to help leaders and teams banish burnout in their organizations. She does this through keynote speeches, workshops, and accountability groups. As an award-winning speaker, certified virtual presenter, and official SHRM Recertification Provider, she wants to help as many people as possible take care of their physical and mental health, including teaching them to manage stress to prevent burnout, fall in love with fitness, and eat healthier. In these ways, she is helping people change their lives. She has developed unique strategies to maximize engagement in workplace wellness and has also developed a stress management methodology available through her workbook, Banish Burnout Toolkit.Key Takeaways: 0:00 Intro2:11 Janice talks a little bit about her background, her journey and what led her to focusing on banishing burnout4:40 Janice talks about ways in which the pandemic is impacting stress for employees and just for everyone in general8:08 Janice shares advice and tips to managers to tap into emotional intelligence and be there for their employees especially in these difficult times such as giving employees a break12:32Janice talks about the importance of starting a meeting with some fun and funny icebreaker exercises instead of going straight to who's doing what13:20 Janice explains the importance of also having some kind of personal interest interactions going on once a week in a company to reduce stress of work and the pandemic 14:40 Janice also explains how people start to know some of the triggers and the things that are leading to burnout17:08 Janice talks about resting and why it is important for people who are working to rest after working hard19:06 Janice talks about why people should try to find something different to do for fun on the weekends to you get the happiness chemicals21:24 Janice also talks about how managers should treat their employees to help them prevent a burnout23:25 Janice explains how as an employee you set your own healthy boundaries at work especially in the environment right now such as pausing and thinking before you react26:45 Janice shares advice and tips to people who didn't lose their jobs due to Covid on how they can work more effectively and efficiently without getting the burnout29:01 Janice talks about her book and how ‘should' is another way of saying I'm not good enough and how to consciously start to shift and use different language32:58 Janice talks about how parents play a big role in instilling the limiting beliefs that children have and how they can help them overcome them 34:46 Janice explain that it's up to you to take charge and only you can change the way you react to stress by banishing your burnout35:50 Janice shares the things that make her feel strong and keeps her focused on doing what she does Books Mentioned: The Banish Burnout Toolkit by Janice Litvin Shows Mentioned: Zumba is an exercise fitness program created by Colombian dancer and choreographer Alberto "Beto" Pérez during the 1990s. Zumba is a trademark owned by Zumba Fitness, LLC. True Grit: On a mission to find her father's killer, a 14-year-old girl and the US Marshall she hires are joined by a Texas Ranger. The trio's true grit is tested as they embark on a quest for justice.Gallup, Inc. is an American analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C. Founded by George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted worldwide.Quotes Mentioned:“Most people hate to exercise.”“Loneliness is a huge problem, a very big feeling of disconnection and isolation.”“A good manager has to be able to read between the lines.”“Expectations have to be lower in these difficult times.”“If you just care, sometimes that really goes a long way.”“People need to have a break and sleep.”“We are human beings, not machines.”“People forget that it's the little things that can make you really, really happy.”“The more you can be your employee's backbone during a stressful time, the more they really appreciate you, trust you and be loyal for you.”“The more you can stay grounded, the more you'll be taken seriously.”“You can only run so fast on that hamster wheel for so long before you experience the burnout.”“Look at how you speak to your children and look at how your parents spoke to you and try to think back to how that made you feel.”“Children need to be treated with love and respect.”“Goals have to be specific, measurable, achievable and put on the calendar.”“Nobody can take care of you the way you take care of yourself.”“Whatever goals you set for yourself, set a plan, write it down and make a way for them to happen.”Guests Social Media Links:Website: https://janicelitvin.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janicelitvin/ Book Website: https://janicelitvin.com/banish-burnout-toolkit-workbook/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaniceLitvinSpeaks/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janicelitvin/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jlitvin/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYuDvEshzl1Fkv49Jg7oVVA/featured

It's the birthday of American statistician George Gallup (1901-1984), whose name became synonymous with the opinion poll.

You've heard of the Gallup Poll? Well who was the original "pollster?" Lee goes into the history of the man who inspired the poll.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You've heard of the Gallup Poll? Well who was the original "pollster?" Lee dives into the history behind the person who inspired the poll.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The first “scientific” election poll was conducted in 1936 by George Gallup, who correctly predicted that Franklin D. Roosevelt would win the presidential election. Since Gallup, our appetite for polls and forecasts has only grown, but watching the needle too closely might have some unintended side effects. Solomon Messing, chief scientist at ACRONYM, a political digital strategy nonprofit, tells us about a study he co-authored that found people are often confused by what forecast numbers mean, and that their confidence in an election’s outcome might depress voter turnout. Sunshine Hillygus, professor of political science and public policy at Duke University, also joins to tell us about the history of polling in the United States. Next up, say you're standing in a crowded room and realizing nobody is wearing a mask. Or a family dog that has passed away protectively guarding grandkids. Maybe having a pleasant get-together with someone you haven’t thought of in years, then suddenly realizing everyone is a little too close, and a little too sick. Do any of these instances sound familiar? A few weeks ago, we asked Science Friday listeners if their dreams have changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We heard from many listeners who said yes, their dreams have become more vivid, with elements of the pandemic included. A change in dreams due to a crisis is very common, says Deirdre Barrett, a dream researcher and assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When we’re in a dream state, the brain is processing the same things we think about during the day. But when we’re asleep, the parts of our brain that handle logic and speech are damped down. The parts that handle visuals, however, are ramped up. Barrett has been collecting dreams from people all over the world since the start of the pandemic. She says common dream themes range from actually getting the virus, natural disasters and bug attacks. Healthcare workers have regularly reported the highest level of stressful COVID-19 dreams, according to her data. “The typical dream from the healthcare workers is really a full-on nightmare,” Barrett says. “Just as bad as you’d see in war zones.” Barrett joins SciFri producer Kathleen Davis to talk about her research into crisis dreams, and what people can do if they want to experience stressful dreams less often. And, search engine giant Google was served an antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department this week, which alleges the company abuses its near-monopoly status to harm consumers and competitors. This is the first such action against the company, which, over the last couple decades, has grown into one of the more powerful tech companies in history.  Meanwhile, early data from New York City schools shows a promising picture of what back-to-school in the age of COVID means. Out of more than 16,000 randomly tested students and staff members, only 28 positive results came back—20 from staff members, and eight from students. While COVID-19 cases in K-12 schools across the country are not zero, low rates are the norm so far.  Joining Ira to talk about these stories and other news from the week is Nsikan Akpan, a science editor at National Geographic in Washington, D.C.  

En este resumen del libro «Confesiones de un publicitario» te cuento la obra y vida de David Ogilvy. El libro está mucho más enfocado en enseñar los principios de la publicidad descubiertos por Ogilvy que a contar la propia biografía del autor. Sígueme en mi Canal de YouTube para ver más recursos como este: ¡Suscríbete Ahora! ¿Para quién es este libro? Confesiones de un publicitario es ideal para: Profesionales de marketing y copywriting.Agencias de marketing y publicidad (directores y miembros).Emprendedores que quieran mejorar sus textos y aprender de copywriting.Apasionados por la publicidad. Autobiografía repleta de contenido A pesar de que podría parecer una biografía donde el autor cuenta su vida, el libro de Ogilvy va más allá. El aspecto autobiográfico de “Confesiones de un Publicitario” simplemente hacen de marco y contexto para enseñar lecciones de liderazgo, adquisición de clientes, gestión de clientes, redacción de textos publicitarios y publicidad, y mucho más. Quién es David Ogilvy David Ogilvy CBE (1911 – 1999) nació en una familia británica de clase alta en 1911. Recibió una beca para asistir a la Universidad de Oxford, pero pronto fue expulsado por su bajo rendimiento académico. Vida de Ogilvy Trabajó como asistente de chef en el Hotel Majestic en París durante un año, antes de regresar al Reino Unido para convertirse en vendedor de puerta en puerta en Escocia. Finalmente fue contratado como ejecutivo de cuentas por la agencia de publicidad británica Mather & Crowther. En 1938, Ogilvy convenció a su empleador de que lo dejara trabajar en el Instituto de Investigación de Audiencias del Dr. George Gallup en Nueva Jersey durante un año. Más tarde atribuiría gran parte de su éxito a lo que aprendió trabajando para el Dr. Gallup. Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, trabajó para el Servicio de Inteligencia Británico en una instalación paramilitar británica ubicada en Canadá, donde fue entrenado en sabotaje y combate cuerpo a cuerpo, así como en propaganda y operaciones psiquiátricas. Después de la guerra, Ogilvy vivió entre los amish durante varios años, antes de mudarse a Manhattan. Ogilvy y la publicidad Con el respaldo de su antiguo empleador Mather & Crowther, que ahora estaba dirigido por su hermano, lanzó con éxito una agencia de publicidad en Madison Avenue: Ogilvy & Mather. Con los años, Ogilvy y su agencia de publicidad trabajaron para Rolls Royce, Sears, el gobierno británico, el estado de Puerto Rico, Dove, Shell y docenas de marcas importantes en la industria. ¿Qué podemos aprender de este libro? Los nombres de cada capítulo de “Confesiones de un publicitario” dejan claro todo lo que podemos aprender: I: Cómo dirigir una agencia de publicidad Principios de liderazgo, principalmente narrados a través de anécdotas sobre los días de Ogilvy como chef en la cocina del Hotel Majestic en París. El papel principal de un buen líder: proporcionar una atmósfera en la que los rebeldes creativos puedan hacer un buen trabajo. Ogilvy también comparte principios para ser un buen empleado. II: Cómo conseguir clientes Adquirir clientes como una pequeña agencia; abordar objeciones de tamaño; métodos de autopublicidad; el deporte de las ventas; mostrando entusiasmo vs. indiferencia; la importancia de establecer criterios para posibles clientes; cómo evitar ser agujereado; y la importancia de ser honesto y mostrar tus defectos. III: Cómo conservar clientes Cultivar relaciones a largo plazo y mutuamente beneficiosas con sus clientes; la importancia de la franqueza; por qué necesita constantemente «revender» su agencia a clientes corporativos; Cómo dar presentaciones más efectivas. IV: Cómo ser un buen cliente Quince reglas para extraer el mejor servicio posible de su agencia; preguntas que hacer antes de cambiar una agencia por otra. V: Cómo hacer grandes campañas Diez principios para crear grandes campañas; la importancia de invertir en una imagen de marca consistente; la importancia de las grandes ideas; El papel de los hechos en la publicidad. VI: Cómo escribir anuncios poderosos Características de titulares efectivos; características de textos efectivos. De alguna manera los principios actuales del copywriting en la web y del copy en general. VII Cómo ilustrar anuncios y carteles Importancia del atractivo de la historia y de la gran fotografía; consejos sobre cómo dividir textos más largos. VIII: Cómo hacer buenos comerciales de TV Este capítulo es muy breve debido a la novedad de la televisión en 1963 y la inexperiencia de David Ogilvy con el medio; contiene principalmente principios generales sobre campañas publicitarias. IX: Cómo hacer buenas campañas de productos alimenticios, destinos turísticos y medicamentos. Ogilvy trabajó para desarrollar destinos turísticos como Inglaterra y Puerto Rico. El valor del marketing de contenidos, la prueba social y la moda; La importancia de nunca forzar la credulidad. (no mentir). X: Cómo alcanzar la cima de tu carrera (Consejos para los jóvenes) Convertirse en un experto en los negocios de sus clientes; cómo sacar a tu competencia del agua; cómo navegar por la política de la oficina; Cómo construir una marca personal. XI ¿La publicidad debería ser abolida? En este capítulo, Ogilvy presenta argumentos contra la publicidad y la publicidad de varios economistas, y defiende los beneficios económicos de la publicidad (para el público, no solo para las empresas individuales). Otros recursos relacionados En el caso que te interese conocer más sobre publicidad y marketing te comparto algunos recursos más: Link citado: cómo ganar más con menos clientes (video).Otro resumen del libro «Jab, jab, jab, right hook» de Gary Vee.Qué es copywriting y cómo contar tu historia con storytelling.Cómo vender más con tu web gracias al copywriting (entrevista). Fuentes: gran parte de este artículo ha sido traducido y adaptado del original de Jon Persson. Algunas diferencia con la edición en español se deben a mi edición en portugués de la Ed. Bertrand Brasil (2019).

What are the people of the world thinking?  About their own security?  About their own happiness?  No one devotes more resources to answering questions like that than Gallup, Inc, literally the name for polling since the company was founded by George Gallup in 1935.  Julie Ray is Managing Editor for World News at Gallup and can explain where the most insecure people on earth live and why – when it comes to happiness – the US is only #19 in the world

GEORGE GALLUP raccontato da Daniele Scaglione

People from all backgrounds - - campaigners and ordinary citizens alike - - frequently cite opinion polls as if they were the gospel truth. Sometimes the poll results predict the future (like what our favorite cereal may be), and other times not so much (like who will be the next President). We have all been accepting the results of opinion polls as an indicator of public opinion for a long time…and these polls either visibly or invisibly shape policy and thereby impact how our investments in science and technology are shaped. Are opinion polls important? What is the science behind them? Are they sophisticated analyses or back of the envelope calculations? Should we trust what they say? Can they be manipulated and misused? Is the science behind collecting and aggregating people opinions developing and becoming more accurate or are opinion polls a developed area of social science? In these days where opinion polls seem inextricably linked to what we see in targeted advertising, these questions are important but not often explored by the technology community. More than 80 years ago, George Gallup published his first official release of public opinion data. Gallup set out to provide scientific, impartial calculations that described America’s public opinions. But, even after 80 years, people are often deeply skeptical of polls, especially when opinion moves in the “incorrect” direction or is the opposite of what they hope for. The 2016 US presidential election raised questions about the methodology and accuracy of polls in America, but the problems of confidence in election polling aren't limited to just the U.S.. Some high-profile errors include the final polls in the 2017 British general election, in which Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority, had the Conservatives ahead, though their margins differed significantly. These and other “misses” have led people to ask, do polls ask the right questions? Are they manipulating the wording of questions to get the responses they want? And who are the people actually answering the questions? Are polls being swayed by the political parties, marketers and media giants that pay for the polls? Where is the science? In the ultimate irony, an opinion poll about opinion polls, The Hill-HarrisX poll found that the majority of people are doubtful about the survey results they hear about. Maybe more troubling, however, was that 15 percent of respondents said they "almost always" believed in polls they heard about in the press. So…rather than relying on opinion polls about opinion polls, on innovation unleashed we decided to get back to a source for the ground truth! John Dick is the CEO of CivicScience. CivicScience provides strategic insight services to decision-makers at the largest brands, media companies, and investment firms in the world. In 2007, CivicScience emerged from John’s vision that market research and opinion-gathering needed a new solution. Perhaps before the rest of us, he understood that consumer and public-oriented businesses that had long relied on traditional polling and survey techniques found those methods were growing tired and less effective in reaching a representative audience. The emergence of social media sharing brought convenience and immediacy of the public’s voice to the table, but also inherent biases and untrustworthy information. His ambitious goal was to develop a revolutionary new way to connect the real-time opinions of consumers to the decision makers who need that information every day – but to do so with renewed depth, breadth, and reliability.

Though a 10-year veteran of Gallup, Mohamed Younis has served as the organization’s editor in chief for just four months. On this week’s episode of Poll Hub, Younis joins the discussion to share his vision for the future of Gallup and how he is working to preserve the legacy of founder George Gallup. But first, a look at what, if anything, history can tell us about the state of the 2020 election contest. Can polls, at this point in the race, be an indicator of who will be the Democratic nominee? It depends. About Poll Hub Poll Hub goes behind the science to explain how polling works, what polls really show, and what the numbers really mean. Poll Hub is produced by The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, home of America’s leading independent college public opinion poll, The Marist Poll. Lee Miringoff (Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion), Barbara Carvalho (Director of The Marist Poll), and Jay DeDapper (Director of Innovation at The Marist Poll) dig deep to give you a look at the inner workings of polls and what they tell us about our world, our country, and ourselves.

Former Chairman and CEO of global communications firm Ogilvy & Mather Miles Young joins Tim to talk about David Ogilvy, a legend in the advertising world and just why Ogilvy’s legacy continues to be felt far and wide. https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Ogilvy_II_auphonic.mp3   Photo Credit: Ogilvy & Mather If you ever worked in advertising or marketing - if you ever studied advertising or marketing - or if you are just a fan of good advertising, there is a chance you already know of David Ogilvy. Even if you don’t know David Ogilvy by name, you have seen the impact of his work. He was born in West Horsley in England in June 1911. Long before he became an advertising icon, he flunked out of Oxford in 1931. After that he went to Paris and became a chef’s apprentice. The highly demanding head chef made such an impression on young David Ogilvy that he would later model his principles of management after the that chef. As Ogilvy said it, when the head chef would fire someone for not living up to his high expectations, “it made all of the other chefs feel that they were working in the best kitchen in the world.” After his time in the kitchen, David Ogilvy returned to England, where he took a job selling cooking stoves door to door. He did very well at that job, so much so, that he was asked to write an instruction manual for his fellow salesmen. David’s writing of that manual helped him land a copywriting job at the London ad agency called Mather & Crowley. It didn’t hurt that David’s brother Francis was already an executive at the firm. By 1938, Ogilvy convinced management to send him to the United States to learn how advertising was done in the U.S. Shortly later, he left the ad agency to join George Gallup and his research organization. Every experience became a major influence on David. George Gallup was meticulous in his research and his methods. David Ogilvy would later say that his foundation in research “would become the Ogilvy approach to advertising.” When World War II broke out, David worked for British Intelligence. After the war, he secured the backing of his former employer, Mather & Crowley, to launch what would become Ogilvy & Mather. He became known for ideas that are commonplace today but were pioneered by him. Instead of emphasizing the quick sale or the hard sell, he favored a more long-term, soft-sell style. His strategy focused on building brand name recognition, so his ads were more informative and focused on product benefits. He’d use eye-catching people or symbols. His advertising copy was said to flatter the readers’ intelligence. In addition to his work, David Ogilvy is known for authoring two books that remain must-reads for anyone considering a career in advertising: Confessions of an Advertising Man; and Ogilvy on Advertising. David Ogilvy died in 1999 at the age of 88. By then he was well into retirement at his 12th century chateau in France. Miles Young joined Ogilvy & Mather in 1983 and would later serve as the CEO of Ogilvy & Mather. Links Ogilvy on Advertising in the Digital Age, by Miles Young (Amazon) Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy (Amazon) Confessions of an Advertising Man, by David Ogilvy (Amazon) Ogilvy & Mather (Agency Page) David Ogilvy: Master of the Soft Sell, Entrepreneur David Ogilvy, 88, Father of Soft Sell in Advertising Dies, New York Times About this Episode's Guest Miles Young Miles Young was an undergraduate historian at New College from 1973 to 1976. His business career has been spent in advertising and marketing, most recently as Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy and Mather, a leading global communications network. More than half of that was spent outside the UK, in China, and then in North America. He retains a strong interest in the issues facing developing countries, especially in Asia. He returned from New York in September 2016 to take up his post. Within the University,

Dr. Frank Newport interviews Gallup's new Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Younis. The two talk about Dr. George Gallup and his founding mission for the company, their experiences at the nation's oldest polling firm, and their new roles at Gallup in 2019. After serving as editor in chief for 28 years, Newport is continuing with Gallup as a senior scientist.

Dr. Frank Newport interviews Gallup's new Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Younis. The two talk about Dr. George Gallup and his founding mission for the company, their experiences at the nation's oldest polling firm, and their new roles at Gallup in 2019. After serving as editor in chief for 28 years, Newport is continuing with Gallup as a senior scientist.

Dr. Frank Newport interviews Gallup's new Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Younis. The two talk about Dr. George Gallup and his founding mission for the company, their experiences at the nation's oldest polling firm, and their new roles at Gallup in 2019. After serving as editor in chief for 28 years, Newport is continuing with Gallup as a senior scientist.

George Gallup is responsible for polling as we know it today. He was a pioneer of survey sampling and inventor of the Gallup poll. But since he was young, he was an entrepreneur. We look deeper into his passions for journalism and psychology, and how Gallup’s polling impacted—and continues to impact—society today. 

George Gallup is responsible for polling as we know it today. He was a pioneer of survey sampling and inventor of the Gallup poll. But since he was young, he was an entrepreneur. We look deeper into his passions for journalism and psychology, and how Gallup’s polling impacted—and continues to impact—society today. 

With trust in the U.S. electoral system waning and indications of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election looming, could public opinion polls assume a new role in American democracy? In the 1930’s George Gallup envisioned the majority viewpoint as having a place in the dialogue of democracy. Eight decades later, polls are judged by their accuracy in predicting the elections. But, what if interference occurs in the electoral process? Could public opinion polls be used, as in emerging democracies, to validate election outcomes? Poll Hub picks up that question.

Wir springen diesmal ins 20. Jahrhundert zurück und beschäftigen uns mit der Geschichte der politischen Umfrage. Gerade in Wahlkampfzeiten ist Meinungsforschung nicht nur besonders gefragt, sondern steht ebenso in der Kritik: Inwiefern verändern Sonntagsfragen Wahlentscheidungen? Wenn es um die Geschichte der Umfragen geht, wird häufig von einer Wette erzählt. George Gallup sagte 1936 mit Hilfe einer repräsentativen Umfrage das Wahlergebnis der US-Präsidentschaftswahl richtig voraus. Ist das tatsächlich der Beginn der modernen Meinungsforschung, oder doch eher ein Mythos? In Deutschland etablierte sich die Meinungsforschung jedenfalls nach dem 2. Weltkrieg als amerikanische bzw. demokratische Wissenschaft.

Brandon Miller discusses the importance of defining your team member strengths. This is a 1 minute preview of one of today's featured Guest. Give it a listen and share it with your friends, and if you like the content be sure and listen to the full 20 minute interview! Transcript:  Bill: If there were one diagnostic tool that creates the operations manual for a human being, would it be Strengthsfinder, in your assessment?  Brandon: I think so, and here's why. Dr. Clifton, who is the founder of Strengthsfinder in 1949, had the question, what would happen when we think about what's right with people, rather than what's wrong? And the man devoted his entire life to studying this idea of strength and talent. His conclusion was, we have so many words to describe what's wrong with us in psychology, where are all the words to describe what's right? And, he happened to live in the same city with George Gallup. Ended up purchasing Gallup, which, at the time, was providing the world with polling data, sampling for making decisions, understanding what we thought. Well, there hasn't been a comprehensive study in it's kind. Over 40 years, 2 million people surveyed, in my experience working with the instrument, with all of the academia behind it, all of the analysts, they're all available publicly, it's fascinating to learn how they arrived at their conclusions. This is a marvelous tool. I think it really provides a broad inventory, because not only can you see your top 5, but for a little more of an investment you can see all 34, so you actually see all the talents you use everyday, but you also can learn the ones that you don't use, that aren't a part of you. Which aren't meant to grow them, but meant to understand, "wow, if I have these, and my fellow leader has a different set, it helps me understand our differences," and those differences are actually advantages, not intended to be annoyances, so we learn how to leverage both. So, I would answer yes to that question, and actually feel very strongly about that.   Want more control of your business growth? Invest 15 minutes and get a FREE "Value Builder Road Map" at www.BizGrowth123.com  

I had the privilege of talking with Jim for the podcast and it was a blast. I discovered Gallup's Strengthsfinder back in 2006 on a friend's recommendation and thought the test was very useful. As I mention during the episode, it's something that helped shape and build my CV as I transitioning to work in marketing & brand strategy. More recently, thanks to my friend Adam's recommendation I found out about the Gallup Strengths Webcast series Called to Coach and Theme Thursdays hosted by Jim from the Gallup Campus in Omaha, Nebraska. I enjoy listening to both regularly and reached out to Jim to find out if he'd be up for participating in a recording. For those who don't really know, Gallup is an international research, performance and management consulting company. It was founded by George Gallup in 1935. Advertising legend David Ogilvy joined the company in 1938 and worked there for 10 years before opening his own advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest advertising agencies in the world still to this day (Also where James Whatley works, recently featured on the podcast). Gallup were particularly known for their opinion polls in the US, and then the company was acquired by Positive Psychologist Don Clifton's company SRI in 1984. Jim has also been interested in new technology gadgets for a long time, in particular home automation gadgets and home networks. He started a podcast network called The Average Guy, that now features several shows including their flagship Home Gadget Geeks, Cyber Frontiers, Home Tech Tips, Tech Reviews, and Ask The Podcast Coach. We cover a lot of ground in the show including Jim's time in the U.S. Army, his skiing in Europe, growing up in the Silicon Valley, Gallup Strengths, The Omaha College Baseball World Series, home gadgets and more. Enjoy! If you've enjoyed the episode, it would be great if you share it with friends, or even better post a review on iTunes /iPhone's podcast app! Info mentioned in the episode: Jim Collison on Twitter: Personal | Gallup Gallup International Gallup Strengthsfinder (Find out more about Gallup Strengths and take the assessment) Gallup Coaching Resources Gallup StrengthsFinder Technical Report (pdf) Gallup Called to Coach Webcast: Youtube | iTunes | Stitcher Gallup Theme Thursday Webcast: Youtube | iTunes | Stitcher The Average Guy Network Home Gadget Geeks Cyber Frontiers Home Tech Tips Tech Reviews & How Tos Ask The Podcast Coach IBM Apple (Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak) San Jose Mercury News HP 8088 Apple EE 3.5 floppy disc Cadence International  CRM - Customer Relationship Management The IT Crowd (TV Series) Data Warehouse Big Data ROI - Return on Investment Warren Buffett Positive Psychology Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Power of 2 (book) Omaha College Baseball World Series Zesto's Ice Cream, Omaha, Nebraska Command & Conquer (real time strategy game) Missile Command (arcade game) Anonabox VPN device Shelfie Amazon Echo AI - Artificial Intelligence Home Automation Gartner Hype Cycle  

We hear it on the news, we recognize it in stores, we definitely experience it personally -- financial woes and worries. George Gallup reports that 64% of all couples worry about money.

We are busier than ever and have more connections than ever but even with that, George Gallup did a study that showed Americans are some of the loneliest people on the planet!  We need real relationships that can only be built in community!

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rice University. Faculty Associate of Leadership Rice and Assistant Director of the Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life. He is the author of two books, both with George Gallup, Jr., and has written many scholarly and popular essays. He has received numerous awards for his writing, teaching and speaking and writes a regular column for REV! magazine. His book, Faith in the Halls of Power , is based on personal interviews with over 300 prominent evangelical Americans including two former presidents, dozens of political and government leaders, more than 100 top business executives, plus Hollywood moguls, intellectuals, athletes, and other powerful individuals.

Loss of Focus on the Kingdom They forgot to bring the bread. That was a big mistake. The scripture never resolves it. It's like an unresolved key on the piano, it doesn't resolve into a sweet chord. We don't know what they had for dinner that night, we never found out what they actually, in fact, ate. I do have a strong instinct that not one of them died of starvation. Do you have that sense? Not one of them died of starvation, but they did forget to bring the bread. It’s worthy of mention at least in the Scripture right there in verse 5, they forgot to bring the bread. I must tell you, and I don't think it's perverse I think it's intended by God. I find pleasure in their failing, I just do. I find comfort in the fact that they were forgetful. I find consolation in the fact that God's grace can cover our sinfulness and our weakness, that we have a God who watches over us and providential cares for us, and that in this text, He’s calling on us to look above our earthly forgetfulness and our weakness and our failings to kingdom matters and focus on that and concentrate on that and let him take care of our needs. I take consolation in that. I take consolation in the fact that the Bible is unfailingly honest about the failings of its great people. I mean, the apostles were great heroes of our faith. They were chosen by Christ after a night of fasting and prayer. They were the human foundation of his future work. Their eyewitness testimony to Christ, to His life, His death, and His resurrection, was the foundation of the future generations of the church, which I think the later part of this chapter makes plain. Peter and the other Eleven stood up on the day of Pentecost. They raised their voices, and they proclaimed the Gospel with great courage and 3,000 were added to their number that day, in one day, what a great harvest. They would write down their eyewitness accounts, they would give us four Gospels, they would give us the New Testament. We read it, and we derive great benefit from it. They would step out in faith and they would shape the course of church history, by their key decisions, by their lifestyle, they were great men. In the end, they would courageously testify to a hostile world at the cost of their own blood - at the cost of their lives - to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were great men; they were incredible heroes and yet they were examples of weakness and failing and sin. It's right here you can read about it. They frequently misunderstood Christ, they didn't know what he was saying to them, they couldn't figure it out. They frequently displayed carnal attitudes and actions, like we do. They displayed selfishness, when they were indignant with James and John, who were asking to sit at Jesus' right, and his left at the Kingdom. They were indignant because they wish they'd thought of it first. They wanted to sit at the right and the left, not because of anything other than selfish reasons. They displayed unbelief when they couldn't drive out the demon from that boy when Jesus was up on the Mount of Transfiguration and Jesus said, “Oh, faithless and unbelieving generation.” He was talking about his own disciples, what a moment that was. They displayed cowardice when they all deserted him and fled the night He was arrested, “This night you will all fall away on account of me,” Jesus said. All of them, not just Peter, all of them fled. After the resurrection, they displayed unbelief when the women testified to the resurrection, the evidence that they'd seen with their own eyes and they wouldn't believe it. They were foolish of heart and slow to believe all that the prophets had spoken. They were like that. They were ordinary men, with ordinary sin patterns. In this one chapter, we have abundant evidence of both the godliness and sinfulness of the apostles. Godly, in that they'd left everything to follow Jesus; sinful in that they still can't seem to trust him to meet all their needs for the journey. They're godly in that they believe Jesus did those miraculous feedings by the great power of God, but sinful in thinking that doesn't apply to their present situation. They were godly in that they were committed to following after Christ's character and becoming like him in every way, but sinful, in that they're bickering and arguing over who forgot to bring the bread. Godly, in that Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the living God. Bu ungodly in the same chapter, when a moment later, he rebukes him concerning going to the cross. This chapter has ample evidence of the apostles. They’re a mixed bag. For myself, I think, this was written to give me comfort and consolation. How can both be true? How can we be as Martin Luther put it at the same time righteous and sinful? How can it be, even James wonders over that, out of the same mouth come praising and cursing? Out of the same heart come righteousness and sin, how can it be? How can it be? But indeed, it is true, and you know it, don't you? Out of the same life come praising and cursing, how can it be? The Bible's this way throughout, honest again and again about the failings of its great people. Like Abraham, who lied to save his skin at the expense of his wife's honor, not a good moment for Abraham. Isaac, you know the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, he did the same thing to save Rebecca, again, same pattern. Jacob is a conniver, a liar, a con artist, with all kinds of issues, played favorites in his family, not an ideal father in that regard at least. Judah sleeps with a prostitute and then tries to cover it over. Moses, you know, commits murder and then when he's called, at age 80, by flames of the burning bush, it's quite a sign, but not enough. “Send somebody else Lord.” He doesn't want to go. The Jews as a nation, consistently a mixed bag, consistently believing and not believing. You've got the two spies that believe, the ten spies that don't. That's the way it is again with even the godly men and prophets. The great example is like Elijah standing before God and man on Mount Carmel, calling down fire from heaven and then, afraid of a woman [Jezebel] a few hours later, running for his life wanting to die. Laying under the broom tree, Elijah ’s ready to die. Both Job and Jeremiah accused God of injustice, both of them did. You can find it in the scripture. Both of them said that God was unjust, unfair to them. John the Baptist before he died, doubted whether Jesus was the Messiah. He was among those born of women, no one had risen greater than John the Baptist, and he's there doubting, right before his death, and Jesus does some miracles in front of John's messengers to persuade them, so that they can persuade, John. The scripture consistently testifies honestly to the failings of its great people. You know why, because Jesus said it this way, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Ecclesiastes 7:20, says, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” I believe it's Biblical to say that there's not a person in this room who's done being saved. All of us have to continue in faith, in godliness, in trusting in him. We have to continue in a lifestyle of repentance and trust and the Lord. By His Word and by His Spirit we are going to keep uncovering new issues. You're going to keep seeing new patterns of sin. You're going to be grieved over it, and what should you do? Follow the example of the apostles. Turn to God with tears coming down your face and ask for forgiveness. He will restore you and this act will continue the rest of your life. I think it's a good thing when we come to passages like Matthew 16, and see the failings of great people and realize that we can fail too and still be in the family of God. Isn't it remarkable how Jesus can use his omnipotence, his great power to use people like us to build an eternal kingdom? He can use you. If you're a Christian, He can use you. It doesn't matter how many are your weaknesses and how great are your failings, He can use you. His grace is sufficient in the middle of your weakness, actually He's made glorious in weakness. It's not perverse that I'm glad that they forgot to bring the bread. I guess really what it is, is I'm glad that they wrote about it, so that when I forget my cellphone or my wallet or my keys or I forget to call somebody back or forget to do something and I chide myself over my forgetfulness, this passage steps up and confirms that God's grace is sufficient to cover my weakness. And that's encouraging. For you perfect people, take the morning off, okay? But for the rest of us who need this kind of encouragement, I find it right here in this passage. Reasons We Lose Focus: Forgetfulness So, we begin with forgetfulness, and forgetfulness is covered by God's grace. Look at it in verse 5. When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. At one level, it's a small failing, but at another level, a significant one. There weren't going to be supermarkets to quickly go to, this was a big deal. It's a steward’s job to see to it that God's people get their food at the appointed time. Someone blew it. I can imagine how the discussion went, “I thought it was your turn.” “No, it must have been yours, I got it last time.” This kind of thing, but one of them forgot. When people are counting on you to meet their needs and you don't follow through, that's a big deal. I don't want to minimize it. I believe that daily life forgetfulness is evidence of sin, evidence of the frailty of our nature when you promise to pray for someone and then forget to do it, and the next time you see their face brings to memory that you promised that you would pray for their situation, and you didn't. That's a sinful self-focus for myself because I'm prone to that kind of sin, I've learned to pray immediately when someone asks for prayer to stop and say, "Let's pray now". But I think it's frailty when we are late in mailing a birthday card or forget to return a call or do various things. I think it's sin, it's self-focus. Our deal is more important than that deal. We’re not talking about physical reasons for forgetfulness. My grandmother died of Alzheimer's. It was hard to watch her in those last few years as they forget their own name, they forget the faces of people they loved. That's very tough and its evidence of the sin that entered the world through Adam. Mental illness is therefore just one more physical effect of the disease of sin that entered the world at that beginning with Adam. But for those of us that don't have that physical thing I still think forgetfulness is just evidence of sin. The issue in this passage is what happens when you forget. Jesus is in the boat with them. The question I want to ask is, is it true that God helps those who help themselves? That's really what this passage is about, in terms of their forgetfulness. “God helps those who help themselves.” It's an ancient proverb that Benjamin Franklin put in Poor Richard's Almanack in 1736. He didn't make it up, it’d been around a long time. The problem with the passage or with the proverb is it's not just that God helps those who help themselves, it's that God only helps those who help themselves. To say that God helps people who helping themselves leads to work salvation, doesn't it? Do you know that George Gallup did a poll and 75% of Americans thought that's actually in the Bible? It isn't. Actually, it flies in the face of salvation by grace. God is in the business of covering up our weakness. He's in the business of making up the difference. You know we say to each other as friends do, “I’ve got your back.” What does that mean, “I’ve got your back?” What it means is, “I’ve got you covered in your weakness, in your weak spot I'm watching out for you. You watch out for me too.” Well, God has our back, He's covering for our weakness and our failings. Fact of the matter is, we cannot completely care for ourselves, we certainly can't save ourselves, we can't even feed ourselves apart from His grace, we get our food from rainfall. From sunshine, from a good harvest, from livestock multiplying over which we have no control. Then an elaborate food delivery system over which we have no control gets it to our favorite supermarket. That's what we depend on. Jesus, in this passage, is really rebuking our arrogance, and our self-focused and our confidence that we need to save ourselves, that we need to take care of our own needs. Jesus says in Matthew 5:36, “You cannot make even one hair white or black.” He says in Luke 12, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life since you cannot do this very little thing, then why do you worry about the rest? Why are you worried as though you're the king of the universe?” As though you need to take care of everything yourself? God has committed himself to caring for our needs entirely. Here's the confusing part. Sometimes he uses our labor and industry, and foresight and planning to do it, and sometimes He particularly doesn't use those things and takes care of us anyway. He humbled Israel and taught them to trust in Him by giving them manna every day for 40 years, which came down out of heaven, and in this way, He's humbled them, saying, what you need to do is to get a basket and go out and collect it. That's all. For 40 years. He humbled them and taught them this lesson. Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. It is by God's command that you live and move and have your being. Why did they need to be trained for 40 years? He was bringing them into a fruitful land, a land soaked with the rains of heaven, a land where there were vineyards and crops planted that they didn't plant and houses that they didn't build. They were going to step immediately into prosperity, and when they stepped into that good land, immediately into prosperity, they would forget God, and forget how dependent they were on him. Is that not our failing also as a nation? We live in a good land, a land soaked with the rains of heaven, a land with good crops, a land where you can dig copper and gold and iron out of the hills. It's like the promised land in that regard, it's good land. It's easy for us, in our prosperity, to forget that God gave it to us, and that we are dependent on Him every moment, every day. God meets our daily needs, and they're met by God's grace every day. So, our forgetfulness is covered by God's grace. So next time you're at the airport and you start fumbling and you find that you didn't bring any form of identification, and you have an e-ticket, and now you have missed your fight. It's that simple. I'm just urging at that moment, trust in God, He has something big planned for you. Don't just imagine that those that didn't forget their passport and all that, are going to die in a fiery plane crash, and God was rescuing you. No, they just remembered to bring their identification, and they'll be fine. God has a different plan for you. God can cover our weakness, learn to trust Him in those situations. Yes, plan ahead, please bring your passport and form of identification to the airport. Got to have this, so I can get on the plane. Alright, I always check, but you know something, if for some reason I forget and then I must trust God. Reasons We Lose Focus: Arguing Secondly, we notice that arguing is covered by God's grace. Verse 6-8, “Be careful,” Jesus said to them, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They discussed this among themselves and said, “It’s because we didn't bring any bread. That's why Jesus is talking about yeast.” Aware of their discussion. Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?” One of the most natural things in the world when someone forgets to bring the bread is the blame game. Right? Have you ever done that? You get into that bickering situation, you know what happens, it's like... It's like river water that you just let sit for a while and it looks clear enough to drink, but then when you kinda jostle it a little bit stuff starts getting stirred up. I think when there are these kinds of stressful situations, what's in the heart comes up and pride tends to come. This wasn’t merely discussion. There was an argument going on here, in Luke 9:46, the same word is used, it said, “An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.” Now, that's an ugly moment right there. The sam is word used here. The disciples are bickering, and bickering is a great sin, so is blame shifting, pointing the finger, it's your fault, it was your turn. I brought it last time, all of that. None of that matters. We're commanded in Philippians 2:14, "Do everything without complaining or arguing." But you know what, arguing is covered by God's grace. Notice how gracefully Christ deals with it here. You can imagine them huddled in one side of the boat, not wanting to argue in front of Jesus, and Jesus in the other end of the boat, “What are you discussing among yourselves?” He knows exactly what they're talking about. You know that all of our arguments are done right in front of Jesus, all of them. He knows exactly what we're arguing about, and yet, there He is covering it with His graciousness, covering it with mercy. He's pointing them to the things of the Kingdom. Thanks be to God that even these kinds of ugly disputes can be covered by His grace. Reasons We Lose Focus: Hardness of Heart We notice also that hardness of heart is covered by Christ's grace. Aware of their discussion Jesus asks, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the 5000 and how many basketfuls you gathered, or the seven loaves for the 4000 and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it that you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread?” They'd already seen two great feeding miracles both centered around bread. They had already seen this feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 4000. Now Mark's Gospel gives us an insight here. Mark 8:14 tells us they actually did bring one loaf; Mark 8:14, “The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat." I think it's possible that Matthew didn't mention it because it was in the bottom of the boat where all that swill water is and maybe it wasn't edible. I don't really have any idea, but it clearly wasn't enough to feed the whole crowd. What were they thinking? Were they thinking, "Well Jesus, we know you need to have at least five loaves to do the miracle, and you only have one, so we're in trouble.”? Jesus says, "You of little faith." He upbraids them. Friends, this is a very significant spiritual principle. There was an insight that came to me this week concerning this. I believe with all my heart that faith comes from hearing the word, but apparently faith comes from more than just hearing the word, it also comes from living in God's world, and seeing his power. Because he says, "You of little faith, you should have known by living through these experiences, what I have done in the past." I actually think the two go together. I think the word of God interprets our experiences under God's sovereign grace, and they together give us faith. They should have known by living through the experience that Jesus can handle this, they should have known by living through it again, that Jesus can handle this. They shouldn't have been so doubtful; they should have trusted. Faith comes not only by hearing, but also by hearing and living in God's world, and seeing his mighty power by His Spirit. He says, “You of little faith.” There's a world of difference between being called, "You of little faith,” and “You have no faith." If you have no faith, then you have no forgiveness of sins, you're un-regenerate, you are lost, you're heading to hell if you have no faith. If you have little faith, what's happening is, the inside of faith that God has given you, you haven't learned yet to apply it to any and every situation. You don't need more faith; you need the same faith applied over and over again. There is a God, He's a king, He loves me, He's powerful, He can handle it. It's the same thought, apply to every situation. Why did they have such little faith? Why did they still not understand? Mark’s diagnosis is hardness of heart. Aware of their discussion in Mark 8:17-18, Jesus asked them, "Why are you talking about having no bread, do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, but fail to see? Do you have ears, but fail to hear? And don't you remember what I did?" Their hearts are hard. What is a hardened heart? It's one that's resisting the work of God. We're not able to learn lessons, we've got stubbornness, we've got selfishness, pleasure-seeking, these things make it hard for us to learn Christ's lessons. After Jesus fed the 5000 and then walked on water, Mark describes very clearly how hardness of heart was the reason they were afraid of Jesus. Remember they thought He was a ghost. Mark 6:49 and following says, “When they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost, they cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified.” Immediately He spoke to them and said, "Take courage. It is I, don't be afraid." Then He climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were completely amazed for they had not understood about the loaves, their hearts were hardened. The reason we don't learn lessons that God sets up for us, how He orchestrates providentially circumstances, and we go through them and don't learn the lesson is our hearts are hard. Hardness of heart hinders understanding. A hindered understanding means anxiety and problems. Our eyes are like those of a blind person, our ears are deaf to God's still small voice. Our mind is like a sieve, like a bucket with 16 holes blown in it. We have to keep learning the same lesson, and just draining out, draining out, how inefficient. Isn't it amazing that God can build his kingdom with people like us? Isn't that incredible? But hardness of heart is covered by Christ's grace. Thanks be to God, He knows how to work with hardened hearts, He knows how to soften them. He knows how to work with them, He is gracious with people who have hard hearts. And above all, He is skillful at using his Word to transform our lives by the renewing of our minds, so that our hard hearts get softened by the Word of God. We start learning more and more, and we learn to trust Jesus, trust him for everything. False Teaching: The Yeast of the Pharisees & the Sadducees The real danger Jesus was getting at had nothing to do with bread. I hope you know that. He wasn't even talking about bread; He was using an analogy. He was talking about the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It wasn't even about bread; it was just an analogy. Look at verse 6, “Be careful,” Jesus said to them, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Frankly friends, all of that bread discussion was just a distraction. That's the whole point of this passage. We are distracted by things that don't matter. Do you realize that? You're going to get hungry about three times a day. It is not the point of the Kingdom. God will meet that need. That's not what we're about here. If it's feasting you want, you're going to have it in the kingdom forever and ever. We'll be in the presence of God, and as He sees fit in his beautiful way, we will feast with Him at His table, and what a magnificent thing is. But right now, we're about the kingdom, and Jesus is urging them to see through the distractions and know about the piece, the loaf of bread in the bottom of the boat. “I know about it; I know where we're at with that. Focus with me. Focus, concentrate, beware, be on your guard of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well. Don't worry about your life, what you'll eat, or drink, about your body, what you'll wear, is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? So, do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Focus with me now, concentrate, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Now what that yeast? It's false teaching. The context of this is an encounter Jesus had in verses 1-5 of this chapter, when the Pharisees and Sadducees came and wanted to see a sign from heaven. He's thinking about them and said, "Watch out for those guys, watch out for their teaching." The yeast is the teaching and it's called yeast because it spreads, like gangrene, like the plague it spreads, it doesn't stay put. False teaching is deadly dangerous for the life of the church. So, “You Apostles,” He's saying, “You are going to be guardians of the mind and the doctrine of the church. Watch out for these two great perversions of world view. These are the two greatest there are: the yeast of the Pharisees, self-righteousness, religion through self-effort, thinking you don't need a savior, thinking that just by obeying a bunch of religious rules and regulations, you can make yourself perfect in God's sight.” Secondly, the yeast of the Sadducees: denial of revelation, denial of the resurrection of the body, thinking that this life is all you get, so you might as well have a good time and enjoy it and forget about all that religious stuff, but concentrate on here and now, and enjoy your life. These are the two great perversions of world view. Beware of them. These teachings are going to crop up again and again; thinking that you can save yourself through your own efforts, or thinking that this world is all I've got, so live for my pleasures right here and right now. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees, that's what he's getting at. Now, false teachers who do not repent are in deep trouble. 2 Peter Chapter 2 says blackest darkness is reserved for them; the most severe penalty there is for false teachers who don't repent. False teaching is the most deadly attack there is on the life and the mind of the church. But even false teaching is covered by Christ's grace, because Christ's sheep don't believe it, they don't follow it. They are aware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees; they know that they can't be saved by their own works. They know that this world is not all there is, that the pleasures of this world are vanishing. They don't mean anything, they know that. “My sheep hear my voice; they will not follow the voice of another.” You are God's people; you have an anointing an unction inside you and you know the truth. 1 John 2, “I do not write to you because you don't know the truth, but because you do know it.” “You're established in the truth. False Christs and false prophets [Matthew 24] will come and perform great signs and wonders to deceive even the elective, if that were possible, but it's no, because Christ's grace covers false teaching, and He will not let us be deluded. Instead, He gives us warning, He gives us patient careful teaching. We are ready when the false teachers come, and we say that is wrong. It's unbiblical. We're ready. He's called them to the truth as leaders of the church, the very thing that Paul called the elders in the Church of Ephesus in Acts 20,” Be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you, night and day with tears. Beware of false teaching. Beware, they come in like wolves with sheep's clothing on, watch out for them, watch out for these two forms of perversion of worldview, watch out for it, be on your guard.” Application stop worrying about everyday life issues What application can we take from this passage? First of all, stop worrying about everyday life issues. Think about this last week, did you worry about anything this week? Do you worry about anything to do with your body, anything to do with your income, anything to do with relationships, anything to do with your future? Did you worry this week? Stop worrying about it. These earthly things are not the reason you live. Life is more than that. God's providence will take care of you. I have to balance it because some of you are going to say, "I don't even need to look both ways before I cross the street. No, I told you to check to see if you have a passport and your self-identification, before you go to the airport. Proverbs 19:3 says, “A man's own folly ruins his life, but his heart rages against the Lord.” It's your fault God, I forgot my passport. No, it isn't God's fault. What I am saying is, do whatever you find your hand to do, pray, think about your trip, think about your day at work, plan as best you can, but understand this, God sometimes providentially will create blind spots so that you learn to depend on him more and more. You don't have to watch out for everything in your life because you can't, it's too big a job. It's just too big a job. Trust him, stop being anxious about your life. Focus on the kingdom. focus on the kingdom of christ Secondly, focus first and foremost on the kingdom of Christ, it is what is happening in this world. May I speak a word to those of you that are here who have never trusted in Christ? I'm urging you, don't be worried about your life, about your food, about your clothing, be worried about your soul. You may have come here today, and you don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, you're not ready to die, you should be anxious about that. You should flee to Christ because His blood shed on the cross is sufficient for you. Trust in him, seek first his kingdom, his forgiveness, repent of sins, turn to him, turn away from evil, turn to God, and follow Him that you might know the forgiveness that only He can give. If you don't know how to do that, if you don't know what to say, if you don't know what to do, then talk to me after the service. It doesn't matter if eight people are waiting. Wait, it's worth it. Come and talk to us if you need to. Don't leave this place not sure whether you're going to heaven or hell. But I say that those of you who have already made a commitment to Christ, seek first his kingdom as well. Seek it every day. You mean to do ministry, but Monday was crazy, Tuesday was worst. Wednesday, the car broke down. Thursday, your boss got all over you, Friday, the kids got sick, and 10 years pass by. Forget these things. Yes, you have responsibilities, but seek first His Kingdom, He's lying on your heart to do a ministry so do it. He's lying on your heart to expand your prayer time, to include unreached people groups, then pray for them. He's lying on your heart to memorize a chapter of the Bible. You thought of that four years ago, do it now. He's laying it on your heart to witness to your boss, or co-worker. You've been thinking about it for a year, do it this week, do it tomorrow. Seek first His kingdom, don't wait, don't put it off, pursue him. beware of the yeast of the pharisees and sadducees Thirdly, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Don't think for a moment that you're not susceptible to those two perversions: saving yourself, self-righteousness, I don't need Jesus, I'm doing well by following rules and regulations, or this world really in the end is all we have, and we need to just get as much gusto and as much pleasure and as much fun as we can in this world. Those two things are going to be screaming at you the rest of your lives. Beware of them, watch out for them. Seek first His kingdom and let God meet your pleasure needs, and comfort needs, and love needs. Do his work and realize you need Jesus every moment for the forgiveness of sins, you can never save yourself. grow an active trust in the lord Fourthly, grow an active trust in the Lord. Just feed on His word, strengthen your faith. Faith comes by hearing, apparently from this passage faith also comes from living in God's world and seeing the hand of Christ at work. I give pre-eminence to the Word of God to interpret our life experiences. But the two just go together, don't they? We see God be faithful, as George Muller saw God be faithful to feed 10,000 orphans over decades. His faith was strong thereby, he had learned how to trust God through all of those things. Grow in active trust in the Lord and daily life circumstances.

Alistair Cooke remembers George Gallup, the man whose scientific polling method changed the study of government and public opinion forever.

So you think you know how most people feel? Meet Dr George Gallup, the man who transformed our views on what really constitutes public opinion.

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