Podcast appearances and mentions of Robert Stein

Waren Männer auf dem Mond? Robert Stein, der sich weiterhin als „größter Fan der Raumfahrt“ sieht, hat „legitime Fragen“, die noch nicht beantwortet sind. Inzwischen haben wir eine Raumfahrtministerin, die eine Frau auf den Mond schicken will. Mehr noch: Es soll zum Mars gehen. Da will Elon Musk bis zum Jahr 2050 eine Million Menschen ansiedeln. Robert Stein macht sich seine Gedanken dazu. Er spricht über die technischen Herausforderungen, über die Ehrfurcht vor der Schöpfung, über Forscherdrang und Todesverachtung und über eine mögliche Perspektive für die gesamte Menschheit, sich im Erleben einer Zusammengehörigkeit zu vereinen und Frieden zu finden.

Seit mehr als zwanzig Jahren ist Robert Stein bereits in der Aufklärungs-Bewegung aktiv. Er hat viel gehört, viel gesehen und dennoch stets seine Zuversicht bewahrt. Er glaubt an die Wahrheit und will nicht aufhören, dafür zu kämpfen. Doch was gibt ihm diese Kraft und Hoffnung? Und wann ist es Zeit für Vertrauen statt Misstrauen? Darüber spricht Medien-Pionier Stein mit Elsa Mittmannsgruber bei Elsa AUF1.

Bob Stein provides perspective on likely economic outcomes that may result from the evolving policy mix of the new Trump Administration.  Plus…Bob shares an early peak at potential contenders for the 2028 US Presidential election.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subscribe Here to the ROI Podcast & other First Trust Market News Website: First Trust PortfoliosConnect with us on LinkedIn: First Trust LinkedInFollow us on X: First Trust on XSubscribe to the First Trust YouTube ChannelSubscribe to the ROI Podcast YouTube Channel

Pastor Garrison GreeneTEXT: Acts 2:37-42BIG IDEA: Baptism is God's covenant sign of our salvation in Christ.OUTLINE:1. Baptism Swears2. Baptism Signifies3. Baptism Summons4. Baptism Seals5. Baptism Sets ApartRESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; John Gill's Exposition of the Bible by John Gill; ESV Expository Commentary: Acts by Brian Vickers; Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible by Matthew Henry; The Water & the Blood: How the Sacraments Shape Christian Identity by Kevin Emmert; Waters of Promise: Finding Meaning in Believer's Baptism by Brandon Jones; One Baptism for the Remission of Sins: Baptists and the Baptism Clause by Lucas Stamps; Baptism & Becoming A Christian in the New Testament by Robert Stein; Green Pastures: A Primer on the Ordinary Means of Grace by J. Ryan Davidson; The Ordinary Means of Grace: Or, Don't Do Weird Stuff by 9Marks Journal; The Deep Waters and Lively Works of Christian Baptism by Carlton Wynne; 95 Theses by Martin Luther; A Short Confession of Faith Containing the Substance of All the Fundamental Articles in the Larger Confession Put Forth by the Elders of the Baptist churches, Owning Personal Election and Final Perseverance by Benjamin Keach; Baptism & Problem Passages: Acts 2:38 by Michael Heiser

Initiator und AUF1-Chefredakteur Stefan Magnet, Thomas Eglinski und Robert Stein und beenden das erste unglaublich erfolgreiche Alternativ-WEF in Prag.

¿Cómo se creó Tetris en la Unión Soviética y cómo se convirtió en uno de los juegos más vendidos de la historia en todo el mundo?. Te lo cuento junto con todo el follón que se montó con sus licencias (porque en Moscú no tenían muy claro lo que hacían) y como Robert Stein, Robert Maxwell, Mirrorsoft, Atari, Nintendo y un tal Henk Rogers se vieron involucrados casi en una película de espías (con el Kremlin y la KGB de por medio) mientras la Game Boy estaba a punto ser lanzada. En menos de 30 minutos conocerás toda la historia de Tetris y de su creador Alexei Pajitnov.

It's election day and across the country, voters are braving the elements to make their voices heard. But could the rain, snow, or even extreme temperatures on this crucial day sway the outcome of the election? In this episode we'll explore the surprising ways that Mother Nature can influence the results on ballots. From historical data showing partisan advantages on rainy election days, to the potential impacts of this year's major weather events, we'll talk to political scientist Dr. Robert Stein about how the weather forecast could forecast the future of our democracy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bob Stein — As Election Day looms, Bob analyzes the probabilities of different election scenarios. Additionally, we explore how tariffs and other tax policies might affect the economy, discuss the implications of government spending, and consider if advancements in AI might pave the way for universal basic income initiatives.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Website: First Trust PortfoliosConnect with us on LinkedIn: First Trust LinkedInFollow us on X: First Trust on XSubscribe to the First Trust YouTube ChannelSubscribe to the ROI Podcast YouTube Channel

In dieser Folge von Abwassertalk diskutieren Sascha Kokles und Klaus Jilg mit Dr. Robert Stein, einem führenden Experten für Kanalsanierungen und Geschäftsführer von Stein Ingenieure. Themen sind die Herausforderungen und Techniken der Kanalsanierung, die Bedeutung der Instandhaltung und der Einsatz von modernen Technologien wie KI. Ein besonderes Highlight ist die Vorbereitung auf den kommenden Kanal Gipfel in Berlin.

Jacob Stein is chief winemaker at Robert Stein Winery in Mudgee. He stands as the third generation of one of Australia's pioneering winemaking families. He joins me today to shed some light on the iconic estate. https://www.robertstein.com.au/ Follow Over a Glass https://www.instagram.com/overtheglasspod  Host Shanteh Wale https://www.instagram.com/shantehwale/?hl=en Executive Producer Rob Locke https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/ Executive Producer Anthony Huckstep https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/ LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork Over a Glass is a wine & drinks podcast with Shanteh Wale exploring the personalities, stories and landscape of the wine and drinks business. An Australian Wine and Drinks Podcast from the Deep in the Weeds Network.

Jacob Stein is chief winemaker at Robert Stein Winery in Mudgee. He stands as the third generation of one of Australia's pioneering winemaking families. He joins me today to shed some light on the iconic estate. https://www.robertstein.com.au/ Follow Over a Glass https://www.instagram.com/overtheglasspod  Host Shanteh Wale https://www.instagram.com/shantehwale/?hl=en Executive Producer Rob Locke https://www.instagram.com/foodwinedine/ Executive Producer Anthony Huckstep https://www.instagram.com/huckstergram/ LISTEN TO OUR OTHER FOOD PODCASTS https://linktr.ee/DeepintheWeedsNetwork Over a Glass is a wine & drinks podcast with Shanteh Wale exploring the personalities, stories and landscape of the wine and drinks business. An Australian Wine and Drinks Podcast from the Deep in the Weeds Network.

La historia del juego Tetris es fascinante y tiene sus raíces en la Unión Soviética. Aquí hay una breve cronología de los eventos clave en la historia de Tetris: Origen (1984): Tetris fue creado por el programador ruso Alexey Pajitnov en 1984, mientras trabajaba en el Centro de Computación Dorodnitsyn de la Academia de Ciencias de la URSS, en Moscú. Pajitnov diseñó el juego utilizando un Electrónika 60, una computadora soviética. Distribución inicial (1986): Tetris comenzó a ganar popularidad en la Unión Soviética y fue distribuido en disquetes para computadoras compatibles con IBM. La versión original de Tetris tenía bloques que caían en un pozo y el objetivo era completar líneas horizontales. Exportación a Occidente (1986-1987): Tetris llamó la atención del programador británico Robert Stein, quien estaba en Moscú en una visita de negocios. Stein se asoció con Mirrorsoft, una empresa británica, para adquirir los derechos de Tetris para su distribución fuera de la Unión Soviética. Disputa de derechos (1988): El problema surgió cuando Robert Stein vendió los derechos de Tetris a diferentes compañías, incluida Atari en los Estados Unidos y Nintendo en Japón, sin el conocimiento ni la autorización del gobierno soviético ni del propio Pajitnov. Acuerdo con Nintendo (1989): El enfrentamiento legal sobre los derechos de Tetris llevó a un acuerdo entre Nintendo y el gobierno soviético. El juego se incluyó con el lanzamiento de la Game Boy en 1989, contribuyendo significativamente al éxito de la consola portátil. Legado y Evolución: Tetris se convirtió en uno de los juegos más icónicos y exitosos de la historia, adaptándose a numerosas plataformas y generaciones de consolas. Su simplicidad y adictividad lo hicieron atemporal, y Tetris ha influido en muchos otros juegos de rompecabezas que han seguido. La historia de Tetris es única, ya que comenzó en un contexto de la Guerra Fría y se convirtió en un fenómeno internacional que trascendió barreras culturales y geográficas. A lo largo de los años, Tetris ha mantenido su estatus como uno de los videojuegos más queridos y reconocidos en todo el mundo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIAJE 2024* https://antenahistoria.com/normandia-memorable/ Antena Historia te regala 30 días PREMIUM, para que lo disfrutes https://www.ivoox.com/premium?affiliate-code=b4688a50868967db9ca413741a54cea5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Produce Antonio Cruz Edita ANTENA HISTORIA Antena Historia (podcast) forma parte del sello iVoox Originals ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- web……….https://antenahistoria.com/ correo.....mailto:info@antenahistoria.com Facebook…..Antena Historia Podcast | Facebook Twitter…...https://twitter.com/AntenaHistoria Telegram…...https://t.me/foroantenahistoria DONACIONES PAYPAL...... https://paypal.me/ancrume ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¿QUIERES ANUNCIARTE en ANTENA HISTORIA?, menciones, cuñas publicitarias, programas personalizados, etc. Dirígete a Antena Historia - AdVoices Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

La historia del juego Tetris es fascinante y tiene sus raíces en la Unión Soviética. Aquí hay una breve cronología de los eventos clave en la historia de Tetris: Origen (1984): Tetris fue creado por el programador ruso Alexey Pajitnov en 1984, mientras trabajaba en el Centro de Computación Dorodnitsyn de la Academia de Ciencias de la URSS, en Moscú. Pajitnov diseñó el juego utilizando un Electrónika 60, una computadora soviética. Distribución inicial (1986): Tetris comenzó a ganar popularidad en la Unión Soviética y fue distribuido en disquetes para computadoras compatibles con IBM. La versión original de Tetris tenía bloques que caían en un pozo y el objetivo era completar líneas horizontales. Exportación a Occidente (1986-1987): Tetris llamó la atención del programador británico Robert Stein, quien estaba en Moscú en una visita de negocios. Stein se asoció con Mirrorsoft, una empresa británica, para adquirir los derechos de Tetris para su distribución fuera de la Unión Soviética. Disputa de derechos (1988): El problema surgió cuando Robert Stein vendió los derechos de Tetris a diferentes compañías, incluida Atari en los Estados Unidos y Nintendo en Japón, sin el conocimiento ni la autorización del gobierno soviético ni del propio Pajitnov. Acuerdo con Nintendo (1989): El enfrentamiento legal sobre los derechos de Tetris llevó a un acuerdo entre Nintendo y el gobierno soviético. El juego se incluyó con el lanzamiento de la Game Boy en 1989, contribuyendo significativamente al éxito de la consola portátil. Legado y Evolución: Tetris se convirtió en uno de los juegos más icónicos y exitosos de la historia, adaptándose a numerosas plataformas y generaciones de consolas. Su simplicidad y adictividad lo hicieron atemporal, y Tetris ha influido en muchos otros juegos de rompecabezas que han seguido. La historia de Tetris es única, ya que comenzó en un contexto de la Guerra Fría y se convirtió en un fenómeno internacional que trascendió barreras culturales y geográficas. A lo largo de los años, Tetris ha mantenido su estatus como uno de los videojuegos más queridos y reconocidos en todo el mundo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VIAJE 2024* https://antenahistoria.com/normandia-memorable/ Antena Historia te regala 30 días PREMIUM, para que lo disfrutes https://www.ivoox.com/premium?affiliate-code=b4688a50868967db9ca413741a54cea5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Produce Antonio Cruz Edita ANTENA HISTORIA Antena Historia (podcast) forma parte del sello iVoox Originals ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- web……….https://antenahistoria.com/ correo.....mailto:info@antenahistoria.com Facebook…..Antena Historia Podcast | Facebook Twitter…...https://twitter.com/AntenaHistoria Telegram…...https://t.me/foroantenahistoria DONACIONES PAYPAL...... https://paypal.me/ancrume ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ¿QUIERES ANUNCIARTE en ANTENA HISTORIA?, menciones, cuñas publicitarias, programas personalizados, etc. Dirígete a Antena Historia - AdVoices Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett sat down for an hour-long conversation with Robert Stein, a University of Minnesota professor and past law school dean.This is an MPR News morning update, hosted by Cathy Wurzer. Music By Gary Meister.

Schon in seiner Mathematik-Matura hat sich Robert Stein mit unterschiedlichen Verfahren beschäftigt, nach denen Wahlergebnisse ermittelt werden. Jetzt ist der langjährige Leiter der Wahlabteilung im Innenministerium nach mehr als 30 Jahren dort in Ruhestand getreten. Ein Gespräch mit Kleine Zeitung-Redakteur Georg Renner über die Schönheit des Wählens, wie Fehler wie bei der Bundespräsidentenwahl 2016 oder dem SPÖ-Parteitag passieren können und welche Änderungen auf die österreichischen Wählerinnen und Wähler zukommen.

Nach einer verdächtig langen Pause von fünfzig Jahren, die das Apollo-Projekt eingelegt hat, soll mit dem Artemis-Projekt ein neuer Versuch gewagt werden, einen Mann auf den Mond zu bringen. Damit wird die Frage beantwortet, ob so etwas überhaupt möglich ist – und damals schon möglich gewesen wäre. War es das etwa nicht? Gab es in Wahrheit nur aufwendige Inszenierungen, nur gigantische Täuschungsmanöver, nur geschickte Kriegspropaganda, die der Kalte Krieg hervorgebracht hat, aber keine echten Mondlandungen? Robert Stein, „der größte Fan der Raumfahrt“, hat in Hunderten von Videovorträgen und Interviews, die wiederum von Millionen von Menschen angeklickt wurden, quälende Fragen aufgeworfen und wäre glücklich, wenn sie beantwortet würden.

Nintendo sends an undercover agent, Henk Rogers, into the USSR to acquire one of the most important pieces of technology at the time, Tetris. Kevin Maxwell, son of media mogul and multimillionaire, Robert Maxwell, attempts to secure rights for his father's video company to squeeze out a business partner. Robert Stein has been selling rights to Tetris that he doesn't have.  He is in way over his head and shit is gonna hit the fan if he doesn't finally acquire the items he has been selling. The table is set for the one of the most insane set of business dealings and espionage in the history of gaming.  Hair of the Dogcast is a proud member of the Tokyo Beat Podcast Network! Contact Us: Twitter: HOTDogcast Instagram and Facebook: Hair of the Dogcast To see how you can access bonus episodes and earlier releases as well as join our Discord community, visit our Patreon page: patreon.com.hairofthedogcast Like and Subscribe Thanks For Your Support!    

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Mark 15:21-39Pastor Garrison GreeneBIG IDEA: The Son of God is crucified in the plan of God to appease the wrath of God.OUTLINE:1. The Son's Suffering Was Planned (vs. 22-32)2. The Son's Suffering Was Propitiatory (vs. 33-38)3. The Son's Suffering Was Revelatory (vs. 21, 31, 32, 36, 39)RESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Baker Exegetical Commentary on Mark by Robert Stein; Pillar New Testament Commentary on Mark by James Edwards; Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Mark by Daniel Akin; Let's Study Mark! by Sinclair Ferguson; Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture by Christopher Watkin; The Ninth Plague: Darkness by Ligon Duncan

Bob is back! Robert Stein, Deputy Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors, joins us again for our final episode of the year. With the midterms in the rear view and 2023 just around the corner, many people are wondering: What is the 2023 economy going to look like? What can we expect for the 2024 presidential election? Why are gas prices coming down? What can we expect with inflation and the housing market over the next two years? In this episode of Off the Wall, hosts David Armstrong and Jessica Gibbs get Bob's take on the 2022 midterm results and his predictions for a looming 2023 recession and the 2024 presidential election. Bob shares his perspective on who will and will not run for president in 2024, how inflation and home prices will change in 2023, and what changes we can expect in government over the next two years. “I think there's going to be a lot of paralysis on Capitol Hill and spending time on investigations. I'm not pro or con, it's just how they're going to spend their time, looking into various things. There's not going to be a lot of legislation on new territory, whether it's green energy, whether it's tech, whether it's taxes, those bills will not get to the President's desk.”  – Bob Stein Episode Timeline/Key Highlights: [01:15] Introducing Bob Stein & The topics of today's episode. [03:08] Addressing the 2022 Midterms Results: Why did the Republican party lose a seat in the Senate and barely capture the House? [08:49] Were the 2022 Midterm elections a rebuke of President Trump? [09:35] The Democrats' strategy during the primaries to throw money and advertising behind Trump-endorsed candidates [10:36] Bob's thoughts on the Republican presidential run: What chance does Trump have to get nominated? What chance does Ron DeSantis have to get nominated? Are any candidates being overlooked? [14:27] Will Biden run for president again? Will Kamala Harris run again? [15:56] Why is Gavin Newsom so popular? [18:53] Would Biden run with Newsom? [19:54] Taxes, infrastructure, tech, green energy, fuel prices, inflation - Bob's predictions for the future. [22:39] Why are gas prices coming down? [25:25] Changes in the government, inflation, and housing we can expect in the next two years. [37:33] Are mortgage interest rates going to increase in 2023? Please see important podcast disclosure information at https://monumentwealthmanagement.com/disclosures.     Resources Mentioned: Listen to Bob's episode from June 2022: https://bit.ly/3fU48CH   About Robert Stein, CFA: Bob is Deputy Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors. He is responsible for managing forecasting and analyzing economic indicators as well as writing economic commentaries. Prior to joining First Trust, Bob was Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department. While there, Bob was responsible for briefing the Secretary of the Treasury on U.S. macroeconomic developments and formulating policy proposals. Day to day, he was responsible for leading a team of twenty economists conducting in-depth economic analysis and research. Between 1996 and 2002, Bob was chief economist for the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill and an economist for the Senate Banking Committee and Joint Economic Committee. Prior to his tenure on Capitol Hill and the Treasury Department, Bob was a journalist for Investor's Business Daily where he covered the economy and authored many front-page stories. Bob received a BA in both Economics and Government from Georgetown University. He is also a CFA Charterholder.   Connect with Bob: Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-stein-4234ba18 Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BobStein_FT   Connect with Monument Wealth Management: Visit our website: https://bit.ly/monumentwealthwebsite Follow us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/MonumentWealthIG Follow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/MonumentWealthTW Connect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/MonumentWealthLI Connect with us on Facebook: https://bit.ly/MonumentWealthFB   About “Off the Wall”: Off the Wall is a podcast aimed at helping you answer the questions: What is the point of my wealth, and what actions can I take to accomplish that purpose? Your answers to those questions will be different from everyone else's. As Wealth Managers, we're skilled at helping our clients think through these challenging, but important, questions.  Learn more about our hosts, Dave and Jessica on our website at https://monumentwealthmanagement.com.  

As Diabetes Awareness Month 2022 comes to an end, doctors at London Health Sciences Centre say they are seeing a significant rise in type 1 diabetes. Dr. Robert Stein, Children's Hospital Paediatric Endocrinologist joins Mike Stubbs to discuss the rise they're seeing, and also to educate us on the early signs and symptoms to watch out for. 

Pastor Garrison GreeneTEXT: Mark 13:32-37BIG IDEA: Jesus will return suddenly at an unknown time—stay awake!OUTLINE:1) We Don't Know The Time2) We Do Know Our TaskRESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Jesus, the Temple, and the Coming of the Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13 by Robert Stein; Let's Study Mark! By Sinclair Ferguson; Commentary on Matthew by John Calvin; Was Jesus Omniscient? The Center For Baptist Renewal by Lucas Stamps & Brandon SmithCORRECTION: Due to a miscommunication, the beloved hymn writer John Newton was attributed to predicting a date of Jesus' return. This is incorrect. It was actually Isaac Newton.

Pastor Garrison Greene TEXT: Mark 13:28-31BIG IDEA: Jesus's words will never pass away.OUTLINE:1) A Clear Claim To Jesus's Absolute Authority2) A Confirmation Of Jesus's Complete CredibilityRESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Jesus, the Temple, and the Coming of the Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13 by Robert Stein; Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Mark by Robert Stein; Preaching the Word: Mark by Kent Hughes; A Peculiar Glory by John Piper; Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Pastor Garrison Greene TEXT: Mark 13:24-27BIG IDEA: Christ will come again in power and glory to gather his own from the ends of the earth.OUTLINE: Christ's return will… 1) Be Accompanied By Earth Shattering Events (24-25) 2) Reveal Him As the Powerful And Glorious One (26) 3) Involve the Gathering of His Global Elect (27)RESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Jesus, the Temple, and the Coming of the Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13 by Robert Stein; Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Mark by Robert Stein; Preaching the Word: Mark by Kent HughesNOTE: We experienced a technical difficulty midway through the sermon, so there is a small portion of the audio missing.

Mark 13:1-23Pastor Garrison GreeneBIG IDEA: In the midst of this chaotic world: discern, witness, pray, endure, and trust.OUTLINE:1. The Events That Are Non-Signs (5-13) A. The Appearance of False Teachers (5-6) B. The Arrival of Wars and Disasters (8-9) C. The Advancement of the Church's D. Mission & Persecution (10-13)2. The Event That Is the Sign: Abomination of Desolation (14-23) A. The Affliction In Jerusalem (14-20) B. The Appearance of False Teachers (21-23)RESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Baker Exegetical Commentary: Mark by Robert Stein; Jesus, the Temple, and the Coming of the Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13 by Robert Stein; Preaching the Word: Mark by Kent Hughes

TEXT: Mark 13:1-2Pastor Garrison GreeneBIG QUESTION: Why does Jesus foretell the temple's destruction?OUTLINE:1) To rebuke our interest in mere externals2) To remind us of the reality of judgment3) To reveal to us the temple's fulfillmentRESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Mark by Robert Stein; Jesus, the Temple, and the Coming of the Son of Man: A Commentary on Mark 13 by Robert Stein; Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Mark by James Edwards; Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels by Richard B. Hays; Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of Mark by J.C. Ryle; King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Timothy Keller; On Spiritual Mindedness by John Owen

BIG IDEA: Jesus warns us against following or being like false leaders.OUTLINE:1. A Warning to the Wary and All-Too-Willing2. A Warning To Watch Out For These Sorts3. A Warning To Would-Be Leaders4. A Warning To Watch Your Own HeartRESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction & Survey by Craig Blomberg; Exegetical Guide to the Greek New Testament by Joel Williams; Pillar New Testament Commentary: Mark by James Edwards; Baker Exegetical Commentary: Mark by Robert Stein; Gospel Centered Exposition: Exalting Christ in Mark by Daniel Akin

OUTLINE:1) Jesus Is The Public Messiah2) Jesus Is The Preeminent LordRESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Echoes of Scripture In The Gospels by Richard B. Hays; Baker Exegetical Commentary on Mark by Robert Stein; Pillar New Testament Commentary on Mark by James Edwards; ESV Expository Commentary: Vol. XIII by Multiple Authors; Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Gospels ed. Barry Beitzel

Town Square with Ernie Manouse airs at 3 p.m. CT. Tune in on 88.7FM, listen online or subscribe to the podcast. Join the discussion at 888-486-9677, questions@townsquaretalk.org or @townsquaretalk. In an inside view of what was happening inside the White House on January 6, White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony, gives a play-by-play of the West Wing leading up to the insurrection, stating that Trump didn't want to stop Capitol attack.  As Hutchinson gave a complete rundown of the various types of erratic behavior Trump acted out on a regular basis, she also mentioned  how he tried to grab the steering wheel from a Secret Service agent while being driven back to the White House after the Jan. 6 rally inside of a limo. Some say that after listening to Hutchinson's testimony regarding Trump reaching for the steering wheel of the limo, this demonstrates real evidence of a narcissistic, unstable person who has no business holding public office.  Then there are those who think even more information came out in the hearing today, where Trump wanted metal detectors taken away for Jan. 6, saying armed rallygoers were not there to hurt him. And what about the people involved in the Jan. 6 riot who are asking for pardons? Many wonder if doing so is an admission of guilt. While today's hearing leaves us with more information to digest, we invite listeners to share their thoughts, ideas, questions and concerns with experts in the field of political science. Guests: Dr. Robert Stein Lena Goal-man Fox Professor of Political Science, Rice University Dr. Paul Brace Clarence L. Carter Chair of Legal Studies, Department of Political Science, Rice University. Town Square with Ernie Manouse is a gathering space for the community to come together and discuss the day's most important and pressing issues. Audio from today's show will be available after 5 p.m. CT. We also offer a free podcast here, on iTunes, and other apps.

What's on the economic and political horizon? Bob Stein, Deputy Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors, joins the podcast to share what he thinks the future of the tech sector, trade wars, energy, banks and taxes will be. Bob also gives his predictions on what will happen in the upcoming congressional elections in 2022 and the presidential election in 2024.   Follow Bob Stein on Twitter @BobStein_FT     Learn more about Monument Wealth Management at: www.monumentwealthmanagement.com   Please see important podcast Disclosure Information: https://monumentwealthmanagement.com/disclosures

Throwback - A Pharmacist, a Technologist, and a Lawyer feat. Dr. Robert Stein Intended Audience: Everyone On today's throwback episode originally published in February 2020, we had the pleasure of speaking with one of the pharmacists that was there at the beginning of pharmacy computer systems! Dr. Robert Stein, PharmD, JD started his career as a pharmacist and went into pharmacy technology for a number of years before getting into law and academia. To contact Dr. Stein for further questions, you can reach him at Robert_Stein@kgi.edu Disclaimer: Views expressed are those of the individuals and do not reflect thoughts and opinions of any entity with which speakers have been, is now, or will be affiliated. New to LinkedIn and not sure where to start? Download my free ebook, "Professional Networking Unlocked", at https://www.tonydaopharmd.com/ebook Follow us on social media! Twitter: @pharmacyitme Instagram: @pharmacyinformatics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pharmacyitme/ Website: Pharmacy IT & Me Email: tony@pharmacyitme.com Follow Tony's personal Twitter account at @tonydaopharmd Network with other pharmacists at Pharmacists Connect!http://pharmacistsconnect.com For more information on pharmacy informatics, check out some of the following useful links: ASHP's Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology: https://www.ashp.org/Pharmacy-Informaticist/Section-of-Pharmacy-Informatics-and-Technology/ HIMSS: https://www.himss.org/resources/pharmacy-informatics-and-its-cross-functional-role-healthcare Disclaimer: Views expressed are my own and do not reflect thoughts and opinions of any entity with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated.

Ken talks with Robert Stein, General Counsel, Michigan Assisted Living Association  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jill talks to Jacob Stein about the marvellous wines being produced in Mudgee, their famous Pumphouse restaurant and judging at the Sydney Royal Wine Show 2021. #mudgeewine

In this episode, Erika talks to award-winning HBO producer of on-air marketing and creative services, Robert Stein. Robert had the pleasure of meeting Lucille Ball on a couple of occasions and he discusses those experiences and what she was like in person and how gracefully she handled herself. One of those times was being assigned to help Ms. Ball as she prepared to go on to speak at the Night Of A Hundred Stars 2 in 1985. Stein himself being a longtime fan of Lucille and I Love Lucy, also chats about the impact I Love Lucy has had in television history, his own trip to Jamestown, NY and all the memorabilia he has collected along the way. Robert also discusses his time producing and overseeing for 'The Buzz' and 'HBO First Look' as well as a documentary based on the life of his friend, actor James Gandolfini. Robert's website: robertsteinmedia.com ••• Connect with all things 'Having A Ball' ••• YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDXuCxbfhUNJzJ_8wMfMD_w/featured Having A Ball Podcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Having-a-Ball-Podcast-103319291812682 Having A Ball Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/havingaballpod/ Erika on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erikamurrietta/ Erika on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erika.murrietta.3 Erika on Twitter: https://twitter.com/erikamurrietta Ziva on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/luciana.ehrlinger Ziva on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziva_e/ Email: havingaballpod@gmail.com ••• Producer: Aron Bender Photos courtesy of: Robert Stein Music provided by: Feather Duster via SilvermanSound https://www.silvermansound.com/free-music/feather-duster

June begins – almost at the ½ way point of the year with a big week of economic reports. This week, a special guest from Astor Funds on investing with modern economics - Astor Fund's Rob Stein. Robert Stein - Chief Executive Officer - ASTOR FUNDS Mr. Robert Stein began his career as a project analyst for the Federal Reserve under former Chairman Paul Volcker and later went on to hold senior trading or portfolio management positions with large money-center Wall Street banks. Returning to Chicago in 1994, he formed Astor Financial, Inc., the parent company of Astor Asset Management LLC (“AAM”) a registered investment adviser and the predecessor firm to Astor Investment Management, LLC. Knight Capital Group (NYSE: KCG) acquired AAM in 2010 and Mr. Stein was appointed to the Executive Committee reporting to the Board of Directors and directly to the Chairman. In a management restructuring, Mr. Stein re-organized AAM as an independent firm (Astor Investment Management LLC). Mr. Stein is the co-creator of the Astor Economic Index® (AEI), the firm's proprietary method used to create what we believe is a smoother, more accurate “live read” on the economy. He is also the author of several books, including Inside Greenspan's Briefcase (McGraw-Hill) and Finding the Bull inside the Bear (John Wiley & Sons). Mr. Stein is the founder of the i-CARE Foundation, an organization that provides an annual grant to Northwestern Hospital to enhance patient experience and is Vice Chairman of the Board of Advisors to GlenKirk, an organization that supports people with special needs. Mr. Stein holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan. Compare your consolidated portfolio against more than 200 benchmarks or create customized benchmarks for analyzing performance. Sign up for free at http://www.portfolioanalyst.com OurCrowd's investment professionals leverage their extensive network to review some of the most promising private companies and startups in the world. Check it out at http://www.ourcrowd.com/tdi Follow @andrewhorowitz Looking for style diversification? More information on the TDI Managed Growth Strategy - https://thedisciplinedinvestor.com/blog/tdi-strategy/ eNVESTOLOGY Info - https://envestology.com/ Friday Pre-Market Run-Down Webinar Registration - https://www.triggercharts.com/webinar-pre-market-rundown-fridays/ Stocks mentioned in this episode: (AAPL) , (SPY)

Robert Stein ist ehemaliger Luftwaffenoffizier. Wie in einer Lebensfügung ist Robert Stein Moderator bei Nuoviso geworden. Darüber hinaus ist er Vortragender beim jährlichen regentreff.de, Selfmademan, Lebenskünstler und Autodidakt verborgener Wahrheiten über die Geschichte und die Entwicklung der Menschheit. Robert Stein war einer der ersten freien Journalisten im Netz, der sehr umfangreich die Einstürze der drei Türme am elften September 2001 in Frage stellte. In diesem Gespräch spricht Robert Stein über das Woher und Wohin seines Lebens und macht überall interessante Stationen deutlich. Ein interessantes und kurzweiliges Interview über sein Leben, den Tod, den Krebs, an dem er litt und über den er heute selbst sagt: „Gott sei dank, dass ich Krebs hatte!“. Über Corona, über den Seelenplan, über Gott und die Welt, überall nimmt Robert Stein seine Zuseher und Zuhörer mit. So auch in diesem Gespräch und man ist immer wieder aufs Neue erstaunt, wo die Reise hingeht. Langweilig wird es nicht eine Minute. Und immer noch staunt Robert Stein über sein Leben und ganz besonders über das Leben an sich. Er stellt Fragen und zeigt die offensichtliche Irrationalität unseres allgemeinen Glaubens und der Wissenschaften auf, an denen vieles von dem, was sie uns weisgemacht haben, nicht stimmen kann. Das neugierige Kind in Robert Stein hat bis heute nicht aufgehört zu staunen und Fragen zu stellen. Gibt es einen höheren Plan, eine Schöpfungsmatrix, die wir nicht durchdringen können, die wir nicht erkennen, oder ist alles, was wir hier erleben und sehen, ein Hoppla-Plan eines Hoppla-Universums, ein Zufall in der Gestalt, wie ihn uns die Wissenschaften erzählen? Ist alles in Wirklichkeit ganz anders oder doch bloß Zufall? Diese Fragen lassen Robert Stein nicht los und wir glauben, dass sie ihn auch noch im hohen Alter nicht loslassen werden und er mit einem kindlichen Blick auf alles Antworten finden wird. Mehr über Robert Stein hier: www.NuoViso.TV Must see, mit Robert Stein: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF-BD-7K4WM +++ KenFM jetzt auch als kostenlose App für Android- und iOS-Geräte verfügbar! Über unsere Homepage kommt Ihr zu den Stores von Apple und Google. Hier der Link: https://kenfm.de/kenfm-app/ +++ Abonniere jetzt den KenFM-Newsletter: https://kenfm.de/newsletter/ +++ Jetzt kannst Du uns auch mit Bitcoins unterstützen. Bitcoin-Account: https://commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/1edba334-ba63-4a88-bfc3-d6a3071efcc8 +++ Dir gefällt unser Programm? Informationen zu weiteren Unterstützungsmöglichkeiten findest Du hier: https://kenfm.de/support/kenfm-unterstuetzen/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Featuring former Hollywood Agent, Producer, and Executive. His previous clients include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ray Romano, Kevin James, Chuck Russell, and many others. He produced The Call starring Halle Berry, and was instrumental in putting together The Shawshank Redemption, The Mask, Terminator 3, among other films. He is one of the founders of big three Hollywood agency, United Talent Agency (UTA), and is now CEO of RobEri Media; Robert Stein.   (2:26) We have discussion about figuring things out for yourself. We talk about will vs. skill, and learning from your failures. (10:53) Following that conversation, we discuss being an agent. Robert shares what it takes to be a Hollywood agent.   (19:40) During the interview, Robert shares his thoughts on Hollywood agencies having more requirements for entry level positions. Robert shares his thoughts about being successful and coming from an immigrant family. Robert tells us what he thinks about HBO's Entourage and compared to the reality of being an agent. Lastly, we get Robert's honest opinion about UTA 30 years later after it's conception.

Mark 1:1-2:22 We are in the Christ Stream as we start the book of Mark - the expedient gospel. We are reading from the Lexham English Bible this week. 7streamsmethod.com | #7Streams | @7StreamsMethod | @serenatravis Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis Mark is the expedient gospel. One person compared it to an old detective show where the inquisitor would cut off a testimony that was getting too mired in detail to interject, "just the facts, please ..."  Mark jumps straight to the baptism of Jesus to begin his gospel. Jesus is 30 years old.  He wants to make sure that the proof of his wonders gets known to the world.  His is the shortened, most concise gospel. The childhood of Jesus is not in Mark. There are no angel announcements, genealogies, John/Baptist buildup, childhood stories to include Joseph, wisemen nor shepherd visits, Jesus as a baby or as a 12-year-old in the Temple.  We see the word "immediately" in Mark dozens of times, markedly more than in the other gospels. Mark wants us to know the wonders of Jesus and then the next wonder, and the next and next. Mark does make a point that all kinds of people were coming from all over to be baptized by John in the Jordan. The managers of all the synagogues had to wonder "where is everybody?" Matthew notes this detail too as he also was writing to Jews mainly. Wait until Jesus comes along and the crowds looking to encounter him grow exponentially! Then there's really going to be sparse crowds left behind for the priests to speak to. Only Mark mentions John/Baptist's 'impressive' outfit and diet.  At any rate, Jesus is baptized and all four gospels include that the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus at that time. Mark's piece on Jesus' temptation is very brief whereas Matthew and Luke are quite descriptive.  There is a year of time or thereabouts that passes between Jesus' temptation and the Galilee ministry; [btwn Mark 1:13and  v.14.]   Biblical scholar Robert Stein refers to this as Jesus' 'year of obscurity'.  John tells of Jesus doing about eight notable things during this timespan. The pressure from the Pharisees must have been growing worse, so Jesus retreats to the north to do his earth-changing ministry around Galilee.  This Galilee portion of ministry that begins Mk. 1:14 goes through Mk. 10:1 when Jesus left for east of the Jordan and Judea to the south. He then calls four of the disciples (two sets of brothers) Simon and Andrew, then James and John. Remember, "Simon" is the prominent disciple; Peter. They all follow Jesus immediately. James and John were Jesus' cousins.  Their mother Salome was Mary's sister; Mary as in Mary and Joseph- yes, that Mary. So their mothers being sisters makes them 'first cousins'. [ Following Jesus was a family matter.]  Mark sets out then to assert Jesus' ability astonish people. He teaches ... and people are in awe. He drives out a demon and the reaction is the same. Then more people came at dusk. They came in large numbers. This is the time that people wrap things up and go home for the night. But this is different. This visitor is different.  His results are different. The entire city comes to Jesus and more. And He demonstrates inexhaustible ability to heal and cleanse. Jesus thereafter travels all over Galilee. He does a salient deed in healing a leper with a skin problem. By now, all Galilee and Judea and leaders from Jerusalem were present to witness Jesus at work.  The stage is set for a very prominent story: ... Mark 2 - The paralytic let down through the roof is a miracle that becomes a great hinge in Jesus' ministry. He gives the initial assertion by declaring the paralyzed man forgiven. He then proves that it is not empty talk when he heals him. This verifies Jesus ability to heal and save and that the link between the two is secured --> and that the source of those two gifts is Jesus.  The resentful scribes and Pharisees think it's their secret right to question Jesus who then announces his reply to a question that was not openly asked. Surprise! Jesus sees through everything and executes a move that echoes through ministries for all time. The rest of his ministry results and can be perceived in light of this miracle and the statement tagged with it. Jesus HEALS AND SAVES. Again, all are in awe - all except the leaders who sense their grip on the people slipping away. Jesus then calls Levi; Matthew (a sinful tax collector for Rome!) to be his disciple. Interesting that the phrase, a tax has been 'levied' still applies today and it comes from biblical literature.     The reading today ends with a question about fasting.  It comes from John's disciples. John has been imprisoned and so the focus is completely past him and moved to Jesus and Jesus' followers are acting rather differently than John's. Jesus responds with three illustrations: the bridegroom, patching a garment, and wineskins. Jesus is the bridegroom. As for patching? Quit trying to patch the old with old ideas. It's time for the new. The wineskins - same lesson proved a different way.  Jesus has so much to teach them.  And Jesus is not discarding the old Law of Moses.  He just told the leper in the prior story to go show the priest like Moses commanded. Jesus reveres Moses too. Lord, you are talking to us when Jesus is talking to us.  The people saw it and came running to you.  The leaders saw Jesus and resented Him. We want to pay attention to all that you have to show us.  Thank you for coming to us.  Amen.

The digitally inclined will feast on this conversation with Robert Stein, among the art world's most insightful and accomplished protagonists, who has conjured up and implemented innovative practices affecting museumgoers around the globe, both online and in person. We caught up with him during his first month as the Milwaukee Art Museum's Deputy Director and Chief Experience Officer, and covered a host of topics, from virtual museum experiences during the pandemic to new research in the field, consulting enterprises offered by museums, online experiments that bore fruit, and a prediction about post-pandemic in-person conferences.

The digitally inclined will feast on this conversation with Robert Stein, among the art world’s most insightful and accomplished protagonists, who has conjured up and implemented innovative practices affecting museumgoers around the globe, both online and in person. We caught up with him during his first month as the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Deputy Director and Chief Experience Officer, and covered a host of topics, from virtual museum experiences during the pandemic to new research in the field, consulting enterprises offered by museums, online experiments that bore fruit, and a prediction about post-pandemic in-person conferences.

From the Serbian headquarters of renowned frame builder Robert Stein we delve into the unusual concepts and designs he's been working on for 20 years at Steintrikes. Janet Buckwalter will tell us about bringing these trikes to America as she begins her new exclusive USA distributorship. Honza has "Bent News in 5", Doug starts his new "Fix it on the Road" segment and Nina returns with more on the spot drawings and the "Bicycle of the Future" segment. Finally, we have a tribute to our dear friend Jacquie Schlitter who we recently lost to cancer.00:00:00 Intro00:00:58 What’s on Today’s Show00:02:07 Panel Introduction00:05:40 Sponsor Introduction00:07:20 Recumbent News in 5 with Honza Galla00:12:38 Steintrikes interview with founder Robert Stein00:52:00 Tour of the Steintrike workshop00:59:00 Robert answers some questions from live chat01:10:00 Steintrikes available models list01:13:00 Janet Buckwalter talks about Steintrikes USA01:21:00 The “Bicycle of the Future” with retro-futurist Nina Paley01:24:40 Nina Paley shows her contemporaneous LBR drawing01:25:00 Sponsor Thanks01:26:30 Coming up next month01:28:00 Tribute to Jacquie SchlitterThanks to our great sponsors this monthTerraCycle https://t-cycle.com/Trailside Trikes https://trailside.bike/ Cruzbike https://cruzbike.com/TerraTrike/Greenspeed https://www.terratrike.com/ and http://greenspeed-trikes.com/Laidback Cycles https://laidbackcycles.com/Recumbent Cycle-Con https://www.recumbentcyclecon.comRecumbent News-online news website by Honza Galla https://www.recumbent.news/Eu Supino https://ehpva.org/emagazine/Steintrikes-Robert SteinWebsite https://www.steintrikes.com/Steintrikes USA-Janet BuckwalterWebsite https://stein-trikes-us.com/Email trikestein@gmail.comBentRiderhttp://www.bentrideronline.com/Nina Paley’s LinksNina’s blog https://blog.ninapaley.com/Nina’s bike merchandise http://www.palegraylabs.com/other-stuff-1/protective-bicycle-amuletJacquie Schlitter Drum Circle “Celebration of Life” 1/23/2021 https://www.facebook.com/john.schlitter.5/posts/4133032380044217**Viewer Submissions or Questions**Send to laidbackbikereport@gmail.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/laidbackbikereport)

RESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; The New American Commentary: Luke by Robert Stein; Luke For Everyone by NT Wright; Preach the Word: Luke by Kent Hughes; Preach the Word: Matthew by Douglas Sean O'Donnell; The Temper of Jesus Christ towards His Enemies, and His Grace to the Chief of Sinners (sermon) by Benjamin Grosvenor; Saving Grace: Daily Devotions from Jack Miller; Repentance that Sings (sermon) by Bryan Chapell

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Eigentlich wollten wir heute nur über Mut & Angst sprechen. Angst haben, das gehört zum Menschsein dazu. Nur haben wir alle verschiedene Ängste; und Mut ist da, wo Angst ist. Was für den einen mutig ist, ist für den anderen kein großes Ding. Aber für uns selber aufzustehen, uns zu exponieren, wenn es schwierig ist, das ist für uns alle mutig.Und auf einmal nahm unser Gespräch eine Wende, und die Angst davor Opfer & machtlos zu sein, stand im Fokus:Sind sie wirklich zu beneiden? Die Großen und Starken, die jetzt ihre Macht missbrauchen? Die Profiteure der Krise, die Täter? Franz Ruppert sagt „nein.“ „Wie innerlich armselig und leer sind die Menschen, die andere in ihr Unglück führen.“ Wir sind betroffen, wütend und entsetzt. Wir fühlen uns eingeschränkt in unserer Freiheit, bevormundet und sind fassungslos. Wir schimpfen auf die, die uns das antun. Sind wir wirklich die Opfer?Und jetzt kommt ein ECHTER Perspektivenwechsel – ein Blick auf eine neue Welt: Ihr Lieben, wir sind gar nicht so unfrei, und eigentlich sind wir unglaublich reich. Nach diesem Podcast habe ich ein großes Lachen auf meinem Gesicht und mir geht es gut. Denn das habe ich gerade gelernt: Ich bin REICH. Ich bin FREI. Seid dabei und hört bis zum Ende rein. Manchmal braucht es „nur“ eine neue Perspektive, um wieder frei durchatmen zu können. ECHT & EHRLICH mit Jeanine van Seenus & Professor Dr. Franz Ruppert, Autor & Psychotraumatologe. Unser Gast heute: Robert Stein, Moderator, freier Journalist und Medienmacher.

With the huge political divide in the United States, fears around how to vote safely during a pandemic and the recent passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the upcoming presidential election is unlike anything we’ve seen before. What will it take for Americans to feel safe while voting in the wake of COVID-19?  What are the concerns around mail-in voting, and are they valid? In this episode, Robert Stein, the fellow in urban politics at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Lena Grohlman Fox Professor of Political Science, discusses his research on voting in a pandemic, mail-in voting and what it truly means to exercise your right to vote.

Understanding the Differences in the Gospels Like Their First Readers Did We're finishing our series on The Gospels today with a look at a common – and commonly misunderstood – question: Why are there differences in the Gospels? This was SO much fun to research; you're going to learn a lot today! We're going to look at: The timeline of the writing of the Gospels What the individual authors of the gospels intended for their writings to be. How our own modern-day cultural context might lead us to misunderstand key truths about the gospels and their messages. And, we'll look at some of the places where the gospels record events differently. Taking You Out of the Equation Just as we talk about needing to understand the cultural context of the events and people written about in the Bible, we need to understand our own cultural context. At the end, we'll talk about how you can better neutralize your unconscious, culturally-skewed expectations about the gospels. As a result, you'll be able to minimize their influence on the very question of differences in the gospels. How to Apply What You Learn As a result of learning to neutralize your cultural expectations, you will grow in your ability to read the Bible for what it intends to be – and understand what it has and hasn't been for its readers in the thousands of years that have come before us. How to Learn Even More as You Read Explore the links below. There is a wealth of information about the nature of the gospels readily available for free online. And if you enjoy looking at some of the nuances in the Bible, you'll love my FREE Guide, “11 Steps to Meaningful Word Study.” Don't miss this chance to get your FREE copy! Here are some great materials to further explore this subject: This article gives an answer to todays question about differences in the Gospels. Christianity Today reproduced an essay from the HCSB Study Bible written by Robert Stein. Its original title was “Differences in the Gospels, a Closer Look.” Some years ago, Frontline produced a documentary about Jesus. It spawned great discussion, including a later academic symposium on the subjects raised. PBS has links to the original information, plus a lot more on their site. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/marinalmcclure/message

Faith in Democracy: Lifting Houston Voices for Justice, Racial Justice Panel featuring, Raven Douglas, Dr. Robert Stein, and Josh Houston.

In this episode, Matt sits down with First Trust Deputy Chief Economist, Robert Stein to discuss the upcoming election and what tax policy could look like going forward. CRN202208-270235

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Today we are reposting an episode of the Pharmacy, IT, & Me podcast. This episode features an interview with Robert Stein, a Professor of Practice in KGI’s Doctor of Pharmacy program. To learn more about KGI's pharmacy program, visit https://kgi.edu/pharmd. 

172. A Pharmacist, A Technologist, A Lawyer feat. Dr. Robert Stein Intended Audience: EveryoneOn today's episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with one of the pharmacists that was there at the beginning of pharmacy computer systems! Dr. Robert Stein, PharmD, JD started his career as a pharmacist and went into pharmacy technology for a number of years before getting into law and academia. To contact Dr. Stein for further questions, you can reach him at Robert_Stein@kgi.edu To see the video that was discussed in the podcast, check out https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vLTNhfHKsS1pUePzyj_pI-j9WIy6D4wr/view?usp=sharing Follow us on social media! Twitter: @pharmacyitme Instagram: @pharmacyinformatics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pharmacyitme/ Website: Pharmacy IT & Me Email: tony@pharmacyitme.com Follow Tony's personal Twitter account at @tonydaopharmd Network with other pharmacists at Pharmacists Connect!http://pharmacistsconnect.com For more information on pharmacy informatics, check out some of the following useful links: ASHP's Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology: https://www.ashp.org/Pharmacy-Informaticist/Section-of-Pharmacy-Informatics-and-Technology/ HIMSS Pharmacy Informatics Community: https://www.himss.org/library/pharmacy-informatics Disclaimer: Views expressed are my own and do not reflect thoughts and opinions of any entity with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated.This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Rob Stein, Founder of Astor Investment Management, Discusses Macro and Markets on the Sherman Show Rob Stein, founder and CEO of Astor Investment Management, joins Sherman Show hosts Jeffrey Sherman and Samuel Lau in an interview recorded January 22, 2020 in ... Read More

The Tetris Negotiations Welcome to the History of Computing Podcast, where we explore the history of information technology. Because understanding the past prepares us for the innovations of the future! Todays episode is on the origins of Tetris. I'll never forget the first time I saw St. Basil's as I was loading Tetris up. I'll never get those hours back that I played it. Countless hours. So how did it all begin? OK, so check this out. It's 1984. Los Angeles hosts the olympics and the Russians refuse to come. But then, the US had refused to come to Moscow when they had the Olympics. I am fairly certain that someone stuck their tongue out at someone else. It happens a lot in preschool. One may have even given the middle finger. That's what middle school is named after, right? It was a recession. Microchips were getting cheap. And Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP was one of the best computers ever made. It wasn't exactly easy to come by in Russia though. The microcomputer was becoming a thing. And Alexey Pajitnov was working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. As with a lot of R&D places, they were experimenting with new computers. The Electronika 60 was so similar to the PDP that DEC chip designers printed jokes on chips just for Russians looking to steal their chip designs. They actually managed to get a quarter million ops per second 5 VLSI chips with 8k of RAM. They needed to do some random number generation and visualization. Good ole' Alexey was told to write some software to test the Electronika. He thought, ya' know, I should do a game. The beauty of writing games is that they can be math intensive, so perfect for benchmarking. But what kind of game? When he was a kid, he'd loved to play pentomino games. That's a game where there are 5 squares connected in one of 12 ways. Reduce that to 4 and it's 7. The thing is, when you have 5 the math was a little too intense. And it was a little easier with 4 blocks. He drew them on the screen in ascii and had the tetraminos fall down the screen. The games ended pretty quick, so he added an additional feature that deleted rows once they were complete. Then, he sped the falling speed up as you cleared a level. You had to spin your puzzle pieces faster, the further you got. And once you're addicted, you turn and turn and turn and turn. No frills, just fun. It needed a name though. Since you're spinning 4 blocks or Greet for tetras, it seemed like it got mashed up with tennis for tetraminiss. No, tetraminoss. Wait, cut a syllable here and there and you get to Tetris. They have 7 shapes, ijlostz. The IBM PC version ran with the I as maroon, the j as silver, the l as purple, the o as navy, the green is s, the brown is t, the teal is z. He got a little help from help of Dmitry Pavlovsky and 16 year old programming whiz, Vadim Gerasimov. Probably because they were already hopelessly addicted to the game. They ported it to the fancy schmancy IBM PC in about two months, and it started to spread around Moscow. By now, his coworkers are freakin' hooked. This was the era of disk sharing. And disks were certainly being shared. But it didn't stop there. It leaked out all over the place, making its way to Budapest, where it ended up on a machine at British-based game maker Andromeda. CEO Robert Stein sends a Telex to Dmitry Pavlovsky. He offers 75% royalties on sales and $10,000. Pretty standard stuff so far, but this is where it gets fun. So Pavlovsky responds that they should maybe negotiate a contract. But Andromeda had already sold the rights to spectrum holobyte and so attempted to license the software from the Hungarian developers that did the porting. Then realized that was dumb and went back to the negotiating table, getting it done for “computers.” All license deals went through the USSR at the time, and the Russian government was happy to take over the contract negotiations. So the USSR's Ministry of Software and Hardware Export gets involved. Through a company they setup for this called Elektronorgtechnica or ELORG, they negotiated the contract and did. That's how by 87 Tetris spreads to the US. In fact, Tetris was the first game released from ussr to USA and was for Commodore 64 and IBM PC. It was so simple it was sold as a budget title. Apple II package came with three versions on three disks, 5.25 inch, not copy protected yet. Can you say honor system. In 1988, Henk Rogers discovers Tetris at a trade show in Vegas and gets all kinds of hooked. Game consoles had been around for a long time, and anyone who paid attention knew that a number of organizations around the world were looking to release handhelds. Now, Old Henk was the Dutch video game designer behind a role playing game called The Black Onyx and had been looking for his next thing and customers. When he saw Tetris, he knew it was something special. He also knew the Game Boy was coming and thought maybe this was the killer game for the platform. He did his research and contacted Stein from Andromeda to get the rights to make a version for mobiles. Stein was into it but wasn't on the best of terms with the Russian government because he was a little late in his royalty payments. Months went by. Henk didn't hear back. Spectrum HoloByte got wind as well and sent Kevin Maxwell to Moscow to get the rights. Realizing his cash cow was getting in danger, old Stein from Andromeda also decided to hop on a plane and go to Moscow. They each met with the Russians separately in about a three day span. Henk Rogers is a good dude. As a developer who'd been dealing with rights to his own game, he decided the best way to handle the Russians was to actually just lay out how it all worked. He gave them a crash course in the evolving world of computer vs mobile license agreements in an international world. The Russians showed him their contracts with Andromeda. He told them how it should all really be. They realized Andromeda wasn't giving them the best of deals. Henk also showed them a game that there's no rights deal for. Whether all this was intentionally screwing the other parties or not is for history, but by the time he walked out he'd make a buck per copy that went on the Gameboy. There was other wrangling with the other two parties including an incident where the Russians sent a fax they knew Maxwell couldn't get in order to get out of a clause in a contract. This all set up a few law suits and resulted in certain versions in certain countries shipping then being pulled back off the shelf. Fun times. But because of it all, in 1989 the Game Boy was released. Henk was right, Tetris turned out to be the killer app for the platform. Until Minecraft came along it was the most popular game of all time, selling over 30 million copies. And ranked #5 in the 100 best Nintendo games. It was the first Game Boy game that came with the ability to link up to other Game Boys and you could play against your friends. Back then you needed to use a cable to coop. The field was 10 wide and 18 high in game boy and it was set to music from Nintendo composer Hirokazu Tanaka. The Berlin Wall is torn down in 1989. I suspect that was part of the negotiations with Game Boy. Can you imagine Gorbetrev and Reagan with their Game Boys linked up playing Tetris for hours over the fate of Germany? ‘Cause I can. You probably think there were much more complicated negotiations taking place. I do not. I tend to think Reagan's excellent Tetris skills ended the Cold War. So Pajitnov's friend Vladimir Pokhilko had done some work on the game as well and in 1989. He ran psychological experiments using the game and with that research, the two would found a company called AnimaTek. They would focus on 3D software, releasing El-fish through Maxis. While Tetris had become the most successful game of all time, Pokhilko was in a dire financial crisis and would commit suicide. There's more to that story but it's pretty yuck so we'll leave it at that. Pajitnov, the original developer, finally got royalties in 1996 when the Parastroika agreement ended. Because Henk Rogers had been a good dude, they formed The Tetris Company together to manage licensing of the game. Pajitnov went to work at Microsoft in 1996, working on games. The story has become much more standard since then. Although in 2012 the US Court on International Trade responded to some requests to shut competitors down noting that the US Copyright didn't apply to rules of game and so Tetris did file other patents and trademarks to limit how close competitors could get to the original game mechanics. After studying at the MIT Media Lab, that 16 year old programmer, Vadim Gerasimov went to become an engineer at Google. Henk Rogers serves as the Managing Director of The Tetris Company. Since designing Tetris, Pajitnov has made a couple dozen other games, with Marbly on iOS being the latest success. It needs a boss button. Tetris has been released on arcade games, home consoles, mobile devices, pdas, music players, computers, Oscilloscope Easter eggs and I'm pretty sure it now has its own planet or 4. It probably owes some of its success to the fact that it makes people smarter. Dr Richard hayer claims Tetris leads to more efficient brain activity. Boosts general cognitive abilities. Improved cerebral cortex thickness. If my cortex were thicker I'd probably research effects of games as a means of justifying the countless hours I wanted to spend on them too. So that's the story of Tetris. It ended the Cold War, makes you smarter, and now Alexy gets a cut of every cent you spend on it. So he'll likely thank you for your purchase. Just as I thank you for tuning in to another episode of the History of Computing Podcast. We're so very lucky to have you. Have a great day! Now back to my game!

Praying the Fog Away All my Christian life I have delighted in stories about men and women of faith. People whose faith enabled them to, as William Carey put it, expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. Perhaps one of the greatest heroes of faith that I've ever studied is George Müller, a man who in the 19th century cared throughout his lifetime ministry for over 10,000 orphans, 10,000 orphans in England. He trusted God again and again for their material needs, for their food, clothing and shelter, for their educational needs and for their spiritual needs. Now, toward the end of his life, Müller, whose work with orphans had become famous worldwide, was traveling to North America in 1877 on a steamship, The Sardinian. And as they traveled across the North Atlantic there was a heavy fog. And the ship's captain wisely felt it good to throttle the ship back and slow down to a crawl to avoid icebergs, especially at that time of year, the very thing that would sink the Titanic 35 years later. Well, George Müller went to see the captain, his name was Joseph E. Dutton. He explained very clearly to the captain. You have to understand about George Müller, he was Prussian-born and this is a man who gets what he wants, very precise. And he explained to the captain that he had to be in Quebec by the following afternoon. He never missed an appointment, he was not going to miss that one. The captain explained that it was impossible because of the fog. And Müller answered, "My eye is not on the fog, but on the God who holds every circumstance of my life in His hands. Let us go down to the chart room and pray." Well, the captain went down reluctantly and Müller prayed a simple prayer. Then the captain dutifully began to pray in like manner. Müller stopped him, and he put his hand on his shoulder and stopped him. He said, "First of all, you don't believe that God will. Second of all, I believe God already has, so there's absolutely no need for you to pray." "You may go up and look, the fog has lifted." And it had. Now, that's quite a moment, isn't it? Now, the question that's in my mind, and it's a perennial question about prayer, the efficacy of prayer. Did Müller's faith-filled prayer move the fog, or did God's power move the fog? Now, the answer of course must be both. Biblically it must be both, and that's the mystery of prayer. In James 5 and verse 16 it says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," in the King James version. It is powerful and effective. Prayer is effective, it produces an effect. Jesus said in Matthew 21:21, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt… you can say to this mountain, 'Go throw yourself in the sea' and it will be done." Now in the end, as we'll see this morning, faith-filled prayer is totally humble and gives all glory to God. If it were not for the power of God to move fogs then the prayer would be meaningless. And if a person prays for a mountain to be thrown into the sea and it does, a person knows full well they didn't move the mountain, God moved the mountain. So, in today's account we're going to see both astonishing faith and even more astonishing power. Amazing faith and even more amazing power, the power of Christ. I. Christ’s Mysterious Manner Now, as we come to this account in Matthew 15, we come to a bit of a mystery. And it all just has to do with how Jesus treats this woman. I mean, when you read this text don't you find yourself a little bit perplexed? Like you want to pull Jesus aside and just give him some lessons on how to win friends and influence people. This is not how we treat people. Imagine you giving Jesus instructions on how to treat people. But there it is, it's strange. Robert Stein in his book Difficult Passages in The Gospels says, "This is a difficult passage. The problem is obvious, Jesus' words appear harsh, austere and insensitive. The Jesus of the Gospels, however, is loving and kind. Jesus who has special compassion for the outcasts of society, and this woman is an outcast in the Jewish mind." So that's what makes it difficult, his demeanor. Now, let's set the context. Jesus is in retreat mode with his apostles. He's pulled back from the increasing heat of his ministry in Israel, the Greek word there, if you look at verse 21, it says, "Leaving that place Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon," and the Greek word there means more than just went away, he... This is a strategic, intentional retreat that he's taking. And he's doing it to escape the building pressure, to kind of tone things down, because it's not time for him to be arrested yet. His time had not yet come, so he wants things to cool off. There is pressure from the huge multitudes that are coming all the time for healing. Pressure that he would be arrested imminently by Herod Antipas, the same one who had arrested John the Baptist. Pressure, most of all, from the Jewish religious leaders led by Caiaphas and Annas, who had no desire for Jesus to continue his ministry and who were already plotting his death, and Jesus knew that, so he retreats. And he's going there to be hidden with his disciples for a little while, but this woman found him anyway. If you look at the Mark account, just listen, in Mark 7:24 and 25, it says, "Jesus entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, yet he could not keep his presence secret.In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. So Jesus is in retreat mode but this woman has found him and forces this interaction. Tyre and Sidon: Notorious in Jewish History Now Tyre and Sidon is notorious in Jewish history, it was well known as a prosperous pagan place, a pagan society founded on shipping and trade and merchants that went throughout the Mediterranean and made tons of money. Now the relationship in Scripture, started positively. Hiram King of Tyre, sent David logs for him to build his palace and then when David's son, Solomon went to build the temple it was Hiram also who sent craftsmen and logs and all of that, and they had a very cordial relationship, Solomon with the King of Tyre. But the flip side was darker, Tyre and Sidon represent worldly luxury, through abundant sea trade and that abundant sea trade is likened by Isaiah the prophet to the plying the trade of a prostitute. Worse Amos 1 and Joel 3 reveal that Tyre and Sidon was actually involved in the slave trade. Also in Ezekiel 26, they mocked and celebrated the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. Ezekiel 28 implies that the real ruler of Tyre and Sidon was Satan himself, the guardian cherub in the Garden of Eden, the King of Tyre the king of Sidon, it seems was the devil himself, and therefore several prophets predicted total devastation of Tyre and Sidon. Ezekiel Joel, Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah all of them prophesy against Tyre and Sidon. Yet, for all of this, Jesus knew their hearts and he knew some of them better. And he said, in one of most remarkable statements that he ever made concerning his ministry there, in Jewish cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida in Matthew 11, he says, "Woe to you Chorazin, a Jewish city, woe to you Bethsaida, a Jewish city. If the miracles that were performed and you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I would tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you." So that's the context. That's Tyre and Sidon, Jesus has gone up there to that pagan area, that gentile area for a retreat with His disciples. Who Was this Woman, and What Was Her Plight? So who was this woman? Well, she's a Canaanite, we have in our text, the very people that God had commanded Joshua to destroy completely when they entered the promised land. The Canaanite woman in particular, Canaanite women in particular, in general, people of God were warned, the sons of Israel were warned against intermarriage with Canaanite women, because there was a deep concern that they would lead the hearts of their sons astray from following the Lord. Now Mark 7:26 tell us, "The woman was a Greek-born in Syrian Phoenicia." Ao sometimes she's called the Sira-Phoenician woman, a Canaanite woman. So she would have been a complete outcast as far as the law of Moses was concerned. A Canaanite woman. But yet, as we see in this text, she has tremendous faith in Christ and is for all time, memorialized in the scripture as an example of conquering faith. But what was her plight? Her plight was that her little daughter was demon-possessed. Look at verse 22, "She was crying out, 'Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession." Mark's Gospel heightens the fact that the little girl is young, she's her little daughter, she's a young girl. Now demons are fallen angels. They are immensely powerful, more powerful than we can imagine. We're surrounded by both angels and demons every moment of everyday though we do not see them. Faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we see invisible spiritual realities, past, present, and future, and one of the present spiritual realities is that there are demons. We westerners are so materialistic, scientific, we think, "Well we just call God anything we don't understand from science, once we understand things in science then the invisible spiritual realms disappear." Well that's just not true. Demons were very powerful and active in Jesus' day and they haven't gone anywhere friends, they just use different tricks here in the West. But they're immensely powerful and this demonization or demon possession is one of the things that we see in the Gospels. Demon possession is a very serious spiritual affliction, a demon takes possession of the mind and the heart, the will, and the body of a human being. The demons do actual bodily harm to these individuals, or cause them to do bodily harm to themselves, cutting themselves with rocks, howling at the moon, breaking chains, falling into fire or water, it's horrible. And more than one demon can inhabit a human being. As a matter of fact one demoniac of the Gadarenes has legion of demons, thousands of demons led by one central main demon. And nothing could cure this little girl. And imagine what life was like in that household, what it was like to be the mother of that little girl, and the horror and the terror and the agony, middle-of-the-night screams and outcries. A father of a demon-possessed boy said, "The demon often throws my son in the fire or the water. So you got to be on 24/7 vigilant outlook to just keep him surviving." Life is unbearable for this woman because of her daughter. And this seems to have been an especially bad case, an extra Greek word is used to heighten that sense. So this is a terrible case. Jesus’ Strange Actions So she comes to interact with Jesus and now we get to look at Jesus' strange actions. First of all, in verse 23 He doesn't answer her at all, like she's not even there. Then the disciples come and they're weary of listening to this woman's pleas for help. So look at verse 23-24, "His disciples came to him and urged him, 'Send her away for she keeps crying out after us,' and he answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." Third, in dealing with her directly, once she forces that interaction, she falls on the ground before him, and will not be denied, He seems to insult her, calling her a dog. Now, I know it's hard for you dog lovers, but I've looked it up, dogs never do well in the Bible. I've not found any positive dog verses in the Bible. Maybe some of you can, but they're usually... What am I? A dog, a dead dog, something like that, it's that kind of thing. So this is... It feels like an insult. The woman came in and knelt before him in verse 25-26, "'Lord, help me,' she said. He replied, 'It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs.'" So this is strange, this is difficult. Now, there's some mitigating factors. We need to understand some things. First of all, we don't have a record of facial expressions, tone of voice, those things mean so much. You can't tell just from the words how Jesus is being, is He inviting more conversation? Is He being dismissive? We don't know. The Greek implied that Jesus was having actually an ongoing conversation with her. It says Jesus was saying to her, it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs. So there's an ongoing thing. The Scripture frequently omits a lot of the back and forth and streamlines the account, so there's not everything said that was said, we've got that. And also the word dogs here, there are certain Greek word for dogs where they're just wild animals, like junkyard dogs out in the street, that's not the word used here. Then there's more of a pet, like a household pet kind of aspect, it's more that word, but still for all of that this doesn't seem like what we would expect from Jesus. II. Christ’s Wise Motives Alright, so we have to understand Christ's wise motives here. Christ is always wise in everything He does, perfect in all of His ways, so let's try to understand. And let's do that negatively, let's come at it from just ruling out some options concerning why Jesus acted the way He did. 1) Not because He didn’t care about Gentiles, or had no saving purpose First of all, it was not because He didn't care about Gentiles or want them saved, not at all. When the original call to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation came, called him out of the Ur of the Chaldees, it says in Genesis 12:3, God said to Abraham, "I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So God's call of Abraham, the father of the Jews makes it plain that God always had a plan to save people from every tribe, language, people and nation, that was always God's plan, it wasn't plan B. That was exactly what God was going to do through the Jews, through Abraham. Also Jesus Himself, His mission was clearly described for us in the Book of Isaiah, in Isaiah 49, we get an amazing inter-trinitarian conversation where the Father says to the Son, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." It's too small a thing Jesus for you to just save the Jews. That was written centuries before Jesus was born, and Jesus knew the Book of Isaiah very well. So He knew that He was the light for the Gentiles. Like Simeon, when baby Jesus was being circumcised, he took Him in his arms and called Him the Light for the Gentiles, they knew that, He knew that. And after His resurrection, He would send His disciples to the ends of the earth. "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations." And so Chris and Debbie are there in Bangladesh, in obedience to that commission. It's not plan B, that's what God always intended. And we have missionaries, friends, brothers and sisters serving all over the world, that's the great commission, it's been going on from Jerusalem through Judea to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. It's not plan B, it's always what God wanted. And one of the places, one of the first places the disciples would go was this very region of Tyre and Sidon. Paul on his journey back to Jerusalem after his missionary trip, he landed at Phoenicia and went and visited the disciples in Tyre. And there were many there who deeply loved Paul because they deeply loved Jesus. It would not surprise me at all if this woman and her daughter were among that church, how marvelous would that be? We'll find out in heaven. But Jesus clearly had a saving intention for the entire world including Tyre and Sidon. 2) Not because He lacked the power to do miracles in a Gentile land Secondly, it's not because He lacked the power to do miracles in a Gentile land. Okay, the end of the account proves that that's not true. Jesus' power worked very well in the mountains and in the valleys. It worked very well in the cities and out in the country, He does very well everywhere. He is omnipotent, there's nothing He cannot do. And He was no more or less powerful in Tyre and Sidon than anywhere else. 3) Not because He lacked mercy or compassion for her plight or that of her daughter Thirdly, it's not because He lacked mercy or compassion for her plight or that of her daughter, Jesus is the most perfect man that ever lived, the only perfect man that ever lived, perfect in compassion. As a matter of fact, again and again, we are told Jesus moved with compassion healed somebody. As a matter of fact, compassion is the number one emotion ascribed to Jesus more than any other emotion. He was perfectly compassionate all the time. Anyone who came to Him empty, like a spiritual beggar with a need got what they needed from Him. 4) Not because He was weary and annoyed It was not because He was weary and annoyed at the end of a long day, or needed a break or a vacation as so many of us do. Jesus never had a bad day and never got weak and weary in that sense. Think of Him on the cross, hands and feet nailed, dying under the wrath of God and showing compassion for His mother, setting her up with John, showing compassion on those who nailed Him to the cross saying, "Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing." Showing compassion on the thief saying, "Today you'll be with me in paradise." Perfectly loving while dying on the cross. So it's not because He was too tired to help this woman. 5) Not because he was taking a break from ministry and didn’t want to care for her needs at that point And it's not because He was taking a break from ministry and didn't want to care for her needs at that point. 6) Not because there was only so much “bread” to be fed to His children, and if He gave some to her there wouldn’t be enough for them And it's not because there's only so much bread to give to the children and it's going to run out. Let me ask you a question, do you think it would have been harder for Jesus to feed 6000 than 5000? Do you think He'd need a few more loaves and fishes to pull it off? Friends, there's no limit to the power of Jesus Christ. No miracle is particularly difficult for Him or particularly easy. Jesus can do anything, that's what omnipotence is all about. And so there's no limit to the bread supply. 7) Not because she didn’t ask properly or with enough faith And it's not because she didn't ask properly or with enough faith. Jesus commends her faith in the end, he wasn't forcing her to give more or he wouldn't respond. Actually, I think he wants to put the greatness of her faith on display. And so we'll get to that in just a moment, but these are not the reasons why. Why then? Well, let's look at some possible reasons. First of all, there's just an order to God's redemptive plan. He has a very clear and wise purpose and order to the Jew first, then to the Gentile. Peter spoke about this after Jesus' resurrection and ascension to heaven, he's preaching there in the Jewish temple. And he says in Acts 3:26, "For you, first God raised up his servant, and sent him to bless each of you by turning you from your wicked ways." God sent him to you Jews first. Peter said that, Acts 3:26. Over and over the Apostle Paul, the same thing, lived out what he wrote in the book of Romans, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." And he acted it out in his ministry, Paul I mean. Every city he went to, the first place he would go if there was one, was to a Jewish synagogue, that's where he always started and he would preach to the Jews and they would inevitably be divided, there'd be a small number of them that believed and was interested and the rest would turn because there was a veil over their hearts, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3 and they would become hostile. And so in Acts 13: 46 when Paul and Barnabas were in Pisidia in Antioch, they had preached a couple of Sabbaths at the synagogue, the Jews turned and became hostile, and this is what it says, "Paul and Barnabas answered the Jews boldly, we had to speak the word of God to you first," just ponder that there's just a clear order here, "since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us, 'I have made you, [Jesus] a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." And so they went out and preached and did very well among the Gentiles there. This is God's strategy. It was part of God's redemptive plan for Christ to be sent first to His own people, to have them reject Him, and then turn to the rest. As it says in John 1:11, "He came to his own and his own people did not receive Him, but as many as did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." So Jesus is here declaring the focus of his ministry. It's the Jews. Look at Verse 24, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." Not ultimately only but in this mission, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Also Christ hadn't died yet, so the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, so-called, set up in the Laws of Moses, were still in effect. Circumcision was still in effect, the dietary regulations were still in effect although Jesus in His life declared all foods clean, but all of that would be fulfilled when he died, and the moment he died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the Levitical animal sacrifice system was fulfilled and obsolete, and welcome was offered to both Jews and Gentiles through faith in Christ to draw near to the Holy of Holies, and find salvation. So that happened when Jesus died and rose again, the end of the old covenant, the beginning of the New Covenant, hadn't happened yet, and so we still have that barrier the dividing wall of hostility, established separating Jews and Gentiles. Also Jesus has a strategic order in dealing with his own apostles, the 12, the inner circle. He came to this region to focus on them. One way to understand his statement is that the disciples are the children and the children's bread is time spent with Jesus. Jesus had limitations in the days of His incarnation. He could only be in one place at one time, he could only effectively deal with one situation at one time, though he is omni-competent and can do all these things when he ascends to Heaven through the Holy Spirit, at that point he's limited, and he's focused on the apostles. He's retreated to be with them, and he therefore couldn't give himself to a general healing ministry, there in Tyre and Sidon, would have taken all their time, remember there was such a crush of people that they couldn't eat or do anything in some of the days of Jesus' ministry. So he said, "Look I'm going to focus on them." To Test Her Faith? But let's get to the real point I think, and that is to test her faith, perhaps, but more I would say to draw her faith out and put it on display. And that's why the Holy Spirit wanted Matthew and Mark to write about it, so that we could learn from her and learn what faith is really like so to put her faith onto... To test it and to put her faith on display. So let's talk about her testing of her faith. Jesus already knew the level of her faith. We also know that God sometimes tests our faith to strengthen it. Much like a physical therapist who's working with somebody after surgery or after an illness, will oppose the very motion that they want, they'll push on the foot or the arm and cause pain. I've seen it, and not myself, praise God, but I've seen some loved ones that have gone through some painful experiences at the hand of PT people. Now some of you may be PT, I know you mean well, alright, but there is a high level of pain. And what is your good intention, to strengthen the damaged area, to build that area up, and so it is in our lives, our faith is too weak and it needs to be strengthened and it has to be strengthened as so often by opposition by not getting instantly what we want. So our faith has to be strengthened, so I think that's what's going on. III. True Faith Put on Display He wants to put her faith on display for all time, but also strengthen it, so let's look at the nature of true saving faith. Let's see how it's put on display. The Basis of Faith First of all true faith must have a basis, there has to be content, there has to be truth, that faith zeroes in on and believes. So we don't have faith in faith itself. Alright, we're not believers in believing, we're not generally vaguely people of faith. Have you heard of that... In our secular, "Let's get all the people of faith." And I say, "I'm not a person of faith, not like that, I'm a person of faith in Jesus." And specifically because of who he is revealed to be in the pages of Scripture, the content I get out of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and indeed, the whole Bible, tell me who Jesus is, I believe that, I believe what has been revealed about Jesus. Faith is not merely an optimistic outlook, like this, "I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows. I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows." I'm not going to sing it friends...I don't remember the tune. John McArthur said: “That sort of faith is essentially faith in faith, which is to say no faith at all. To jump out of an airplane with a parachute is an act of faith. To jump without a parachute while exclaiming, ‘I believe’ is an act of stupidity. To say no more than ‘I believe in love,’ or ‘I believe in believing,’ or ‘I believe it will all work out’ is contentless faith and therefore pointless and powerless.” So this Canaanite woman had heard of Jesus, she knew some of who he was, she didn't know everything, none of them knew everything, but she knew enough to believe in him. Look what she says, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me." What is that? He is the fulfillment of the Davidic promises, he is Lord of heaven and earth, that's who he is. And that's what she calls him, "Lord, Son of David." Faith comes from hearing, she'd heard the reports about Jesus, his miracles, all that he had done, she didn't have the New Testament, it wasn't written yet. But she had heard reports, and she believed them, she believed that Jesus could heal her daughter. Faith initially springs in the human heart through hearing of the word, it comes from hearing the Scripture. Not only that, but faith is fed and strengthened the same way. And so my task, as a preacher, is to feed your faith so you have a more vivid, a stronger sense of Jesus when you walk out of here than when you walked in, a stronger sense of reliance on Christ. So we see the basis of faith. The Reverence of Faith Secondly, we see the reverence of faith. She calls him, "Lord," she falls on the ground before him, before his feet, she worships him, she is submissive, she is reverent. She doesn't presume on him, she doesn't demand from him, she knows that he is exalted. Like John the Baptist said about Jesus, "I don't deserve to tie his shoes, his sandals. I don't deserve to touch his feet." John the Baptist said that. She had the same sense of the exalted nature of Jesus, reverence of faith. We see the confidence of faith; there's zero doubt in her mind Jesus can do this, he is capable of doing this. The essence of great faith is confidence that God has the power to perform the very thing that's desired. Like Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or think according to His power that is at work within us…" He can do infinitely more than you think he can. It's amazing. The Repentance of Faith We see also the repentance of faith, she says, "Have mercy on me. Have mercy, show me grace. I don't deserve anything from you. I'm a sinner." Like the Pharisee and the tax collector, I'm the... Like the tax collector, beating my breast, and I won't look up, and I just say, "Have mercy on me, O God, the sinner." Just like the songs we sang this morning, "Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, I'm a sinner. I can't ask anything of you, but will you please have mercy?" These are the very people that Christ saves. Blessed are the spiritual beggars for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. She knows who she is, she is a sinner, and she's calling out for mercy, she's not making demands. The Persistence of Faith We see also the persistence of faith. Jesus just puts up one roadblock after another. This is the very thing I'm talking about, the strengthening through the physical therapy, Jesus is strengthening it by putting up obstacles, putting up roadblocks. So it is in your life, there are things you want, they come from Scripture, you have desires, they're good things, but they just aren't happening. And you're praying and praying, and it just doesn't happen, and you should see it in this light, God is the one that's making you wait, God is the one putting roadblocks up; but faith perseveres, it's persistent. And note that her persistence springs from her love for her daughter, it springs from that horizontal connection. One could argue that it's the strongest love there is in the world, you could make that case, of a mother for her child, sick child, hurting child. The Lord said, "Can a mother forget the child at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will never forget you." God himself chose that as the paradigm example of love. And so, here's this woman, and she has linked her heart to her daughter. And look what she says, verse 22, "Have mercy on me... Lord, help me," she says in verse 24, she says, "My daughter…" It's like it's happening to me. I think that God tests us in prayer to strengthen our horizontal love for other people, because we don't love very much, we don't have Jesus' compassion, it's not because he wasn't compassionate, it's because we're not compassionate, and we need to learn how to really love other people and care, and that happens in prayer. When you pray again and again and again for some dire situation, you grow in love for that person, you actually care whether it happens. Faith overcomes all the obstacles and keeps persevering, like Jacob wrestling with the angel, and he's wrestling, and the angel of the Lord is saying, "Let me go," and Jacob says, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." Romans 8:37 says, "Know in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." We see also the humility of faith. "It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs.' 'Yes, Lord.' She says, 'But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.'" It's incredible. She finds hope even in the seeming put off. It's like well, there's still hope for me though. Isn't there? There's still a chance. If I could just be a dog under the table, there might be something for me. So the images of a laden table, rich household kids sitting around the table dogs under... We don't have dogs. I've been told it's best not to feed them off the table. They get certain bad habits. But you can picture this, the dog is there and maybe something accidentally falls off the table. Now, what's amazing to me is that she doesn't bristle, she doesn't bridle up, at this seeming insult. He calls her a dog of sorts. "True Lord," She says in one translation, "Yes, I'm a dog." Faith takes it's rightful place under Jesus. Remember the centurion who sends a messenger saying, "My servant is at home paralyzed in terrible suffering." To the Centurion Jesus said, "I'll go and heal him." Centurion says, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just give the word and my servant will be healed." Naturally in our sin, we are all dogs and worse than dogs. You have to have that work on you through the law. The gospel doesn't come puffing up your self-esteem. It comes and tells you the truth and no passage does it better than Romans 3, verse 9 and following. "What should we say then? We any better? No. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin as it is written, 'There is no one righteous, no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned aside, they have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. So you're saying that I'm a worthless sinner. Because of my sin, I have lost worth and value, and I don't do anything good at all. Actually I have more to say. Throats are open graves, tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips, ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace, they do not know, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Oh, that's the rest, that's what the law does, that's what the work... It says, "I am a sinner, I'm broken, I need a savior." God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And this woman was humble. Now, imagine if she had said to Jesus, "You know, I'm not a dog and I don't appreciate you saying that to me. I came for help and look what you did, you just insulted me," and she walked away, what would she have gotten from Jesus? Nothing. Go home to a demon possessed daughter. God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble, and she was a humble woman. And so faith humbles us. It doesn't make us arrogant it humbles us. The Reward of Faith We'll look at the reward verse 28, Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very moment. So faith perseveres to get the reward. It perseveres until it obtains. Jesus made her wait some, He makes other people wait more. Some of you may be waiting on blessings and you wonder why God doesn't give it, He may be going to give it to you next year or next month. Five years from now. Waiting and waiting, perhaps conversion of a relative, something, He makes you wait. He made her wait, but then she got what she wanted. The ultimate reward of faith, how about this? Eternity in heaven in a resurrection body. Every blessing in the heavenly realm's given to you in Christ Jesus, all of them fulfilled in Heaven. He'll make you wait for it though. Live the rest of your life, but He'll give it to you. So true faith perseveres through all the obstacles and obtains. IV. Christ’s Power Put on Display Now Christ's power is put on display. I said before, her faith is great, his power is greater. Can I tell you something? In heaven we're not going to be celebrating the greatness of faith. We'll be celebrating the greatness of Jesus. And His power it's infinitely greater than she can possibly imagine, and this particular display is amazing. I hadn't realized an aspect of this until about a year ago. Power in the mechanical engineering world has to do with the ability to move things quickly if you can think, to get work done. So it's not that huge a deal for a 1000 or a million people with little shovels to move a mountain over a thousand years. But if a mountain moves and throws itself in the sea in an instant, now that's incredibly powerful. So listen to this, Mark7:28-30, "'Yes Lord.' She replied. 'But even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.' Then He told her, 'for such a reply, you may go, the demon has left your daughter.'" Keep in mind, we're talking about demon possession. Demons are very powerful spiritual beings. The issue for me here is timing. I'm going to get really geeky on you. Really engineering here, alright? When she began her statement, the demon was in the daughter. When Jesus finished His statement, the demon was gone. Now I'm not advocating sympathy for the devil, at all here, but what's it like to be that demon? You're in the girl, and now you're not. You're out on the street, you're out. You've been served your eviction notice, actually, no notice you're out. Sometimes demons would throw people down and make them foam at the mouth and there'll be a bit of an argument, a bit of a back and forth. There was none of that... This time, that demon was out. Power, infinite power. And what did Jesus say? Did he pray? Did he drop to his knees? Did He look to His Father? Did He do... Nothing. Just demon's gone. When did that happen, how did that, what, what just happened? Sometimes He uses instruments, He will make mud and put it on someone's eyes and watch... Somebody He touched somebody, this time what did He do? Think it. He just thought it and the demon was gone. Can I tell you something? Jesus' power is infinitely greater than any of your problems, all of your problems. He could solve them instantly. Just know that. You may be asking, "Then why doesn't he?" And that's an important question in the doctrine of Providence, I understand. I'm just saying, His power... There was no difficulty here for this healing. This is also a picture of our forgiveness. Another woman came to Jesus and washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Jesus read her heart, saw her faith and her repentance from sin, and he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Instantaneously. All of them, yeah, all of them, past, present, future, they're all forgiven. That's the power of Jesus. And that'll be the power of Jesus on your body, your resurrection body. In an instant, you'll be transformed from a lowly corrupting body of sin and death to a radiant, powerful, glorious resurrection body, in an instant, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. He will do that. V. Application Alright, so what applications? First of all, learn to pray like this. Pray like this. Pray... Go over the lessons of faith, the basis of faith, and all of that. Get your faith strong, based on the Word of God, and then pray God's word back to Him. Pray His promises back to Him. Pray like this. Let me say an aside to some desperate parents. I don't know who you are, I know some of you. Take this text and bring your problem to Jesus. Pray and pray and pray like this woman, don't give up. Don't give up on your rebellious teen or your grown person maybe in their 20s or 30s, married, with kids, not walking with the Lord, in a pattern of sin breaking your heart. Take it to the Lord in prayer, take it to God in prayer. It could be your little ones. They're not sinning in any unusual ways, they're just kids, they're growing up. Take them to God in prayer. Secondly, on God's silence. Don't let God's silence and His slowness put you off. God knows exactly what He's doing. He knows that you're praying, he knows what you want before you ask Him, He makes you wait because He's not a vending machine and He's wise and He knows His timing, and He doesn't always give you what you ask for. But be willing to persevere even when God is silent. Go back over the lessons of faith. Feed your faith in God's word. Be humble. Know that you're a sinner, saved by grace. Know that God can do immeasurably more than you ask or think. Be repentant in your faith, confess your sins often. Be humble. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And wait on God until you finally have your reward. And then stand in awe of Jesus, just stand in awe of this incredible Savior, Who can think a thought and a demon has to obey. Stand in awe of the power of God in Jesus, He's infinitely more powerful than you can possibly imagine. Now, in my prayer I prayed for any that were here that are outsiders, came in here not believers. I pray that you have heard the gospel today, that God sent his Son into the world to save sinners like you and me. He died on the cross, in our place, as a substitute for sins. In an instant, he can forgive your sins, in an instant. All you have to do is come to Him in faith. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus. Say, "I am a sinner, just like this Canaanite woman. I need You to forgive me of my sins." And He will. Close with me in prayer.

Rice University's Professor Robert Stein talks about the idea of counties using a "vote center" program

This podcast episode is a (really bad) recording from our April club meeting. We had a special guest, Rice University Professor Robert Stein join us and share his views and insights on what we might expect when straight ticket voting is eliminated in Harris County voting based upon years of research in voting behaviors of the general public.Support the show (https://secure.actblue.com/donate/texasblue2018)

Eva Montealegre grew up on her father’s showboat, The River Queen, docked in St. Louis. It was a hotbed of adultery, politics, delicious food and great music. Her mother, an investigative journalist, dragged Eva through every neighborhood in St. Louis from aristocratic homes to crime infested alleys. A combination of earthy artistic expression and intellectual pursuits formed Eva from a young age with in-depth engagements into the worlds of art, film, theatre and music, ultimately forging her into the LA crime author of Red Carpet Noir. Stephen Robert Stein is a retired orthopedic surgeon living in rural Indiana with his wife Becky and their two children, Matthew and Alyssa. Leaving his thirty year practice in Phoenix, he moved out to Batesville, Indiana, where he concentrates on writing and enjoying the Midwestern lifestyle. He and his family have traveled extensively throughout Europe laying a solid historical foundation for The Oath while delving deeper into the reasons behind the Holocaust. His passions include Scuba diving, flying and exploring new environments. He presently serves as a member of the Batesville School Board and is active as a member of the Ivy Tech Community College Foundation.

“The larger oral history makes clear, and her published writing makes very clear, that Anita thought that she had, over the course of her life, 50s, 60s, 70s, distanced herself from the straight community because she was troubled and disgusted by heterosexual relationships. She separated herself from the black lesbian community because she found it was dominated by butch femme and she didn't like that. And she was also alienated from the black civil rights movement and black politics because she encountered sexism there. And there's one point in the interview when she talks about black male nationalists wanting their women to stop working for white men and work for them. So by the 70's she landed in the women's movement and while she was critical of racism in the women's movement I think ultimately she found a more friendly home in the multiracial women's movement. " - Marc Robert Stein For episode 11 we spoke to Marc Robert Stein about his interview with Anita Cornwell, author of Black Lesbian in White America in 1983. We discuss race, tensions of what is inherent and what is performed in gender, and the effect of race, class, gender, sexuality and geography on a lived historical experience. Next week we will speak with Lauren Hortie, co-producer of the short film Midnight at the Continental which addresses queer geography and butch femme politics in a 1955 Toronto. Follow this channel for more great content! Please share, like, and send us feedback about the podcast.

J. A. Davis, author of Crisis: Blue, in conversation with Stephen Robert Stein, author of The Oath. The Oath and Crisis: Blue will be published on November 15 and are available for pre-order now wherever books are sold.

Stephen Robert Stein, author of The Oath, in conversation with Sean McDaniel, author of Criminal Zoo. The Oath will be released November 15 and is available for pre-order at http://www.rarebirdbooks.com/the-oath-by-stephen-robert-stein Criminal Zoo will be released November 15 and is available for pre-order at http://www.rarebirdbooks.com/criminal-zoo/

Stephen Robert Stein, author of The Oath, in-conversation with Joe Herbert, director of notable commercials, including a Doritos Super Bowl spot that was filmed in Stein's home in rural Indiana.

Stephen Robert Stein, author of The Oath, in conversation with Burt Weissbourd, author of the Corey Logan Trilogy (Inside Passage, Teaser, and Minos).

Robert Stein joins us to talk about the Gospel of Mark

Thanks for checking out this episode of Art of the Sermon! Be sure to subscribe through iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. If you enjoy this episode, leave a review on our podcast’s page in the iTunes store. This will help others discover the show! Guest: Brady Shearer – CEO of Pro Church Tools and Host of the Pro Church Podcast General Topic: Using Media in Preaching and Teaching Introduction to Brady and his work (1:26) Philosophy of communication (3:51) Attention – the most valuable commodity (5:38) 3-pronged approach to storytelling (7:47) Stories, stats, steps (10:40) What pastors need to know about media (13:00) Church logo design (15:37) Reminder: social media is free! (20:01) Pastoring opportunities online (20:43) Latest trends (22:52) Toughest and favorite projects (25:49) Impactful preachers and communicators (27:03) Influential books (28:17) Recommended Follows (29:20) How to follow Brady (30:59) Links to things mentioned in the episode Pro Church Tools Pro Church Podcast The Method and Message of Jesus' Teachings by Robert Stein 99Designs A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller Story by Robert McKee TED Talks Storytelling by Akash Karia The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall Gimlet Media Podcasts Brady and Brittany Vlog Reaching out to our guest @BradyShearer (Twitter, Instagram) @BradyShearer1 (Snapchat) Next Episode arrives June 16, 2016! Communication/design tools and tips as well as more from the interview with Brady Shearer Connect with the Show I would love to hear what you think about the show—especially this episode. You can connect with the show and send me your feedback through the following channels: Facebook - Facebook.com/ArtOfTheSermon Twitter- Twitter.com/ArtOfTheSermon Instagram- Instagram.com/ArtOfTheSermon Comment on the Show Notes post at ArtOfTheSermon.com Art of the Sermon is a project by Dan Wunderlich of Defining Grace. Learn more at DefiningGrace.com Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in these show notes may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Defining Grace is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.

Dr. Steven Robert Stein, author of The Oath, discusses World War II, Operation Paperclip, and family histories with Dr. Don Epstein.

Chip Jacobs, author of Strange as it Seems, discusses Operation Paperclip, the program that allowed Nazi doctors into the US legally, with Stephen Robert Stein, author of The Oath.

Date: April 5, 2009; Series: At the Cross Sermon: False Advertising; Text: Mark 11:1-21 What has been termed "The Triumphal Entry" is one of the few events recorded in ALL 4 gospels - emphasizing its importance. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was a carefully orchestrated parable - in the words of theologian Robert Stein, “For Jesus the triumphal entry was a carefully orchestrated messianic act. It was a parabolic act that could be perceived by those with eyes to see but that was concealed for others.” And those with eyes to see understood the true meaning of this parable: The King is Here! Upon arriving in Kingly fashion, what are the first actions of this new King? Another parable. After His highly parabolic and symbolic entry, Jesus enacts another parable that clearly communicates His intentions of this King: He curses a fig tree and then overturns business as usual at the Temple. Jesus is clearing the way for something new, something better. He’s clearing the way so that men and women - like you and me - might truly be saved. Hosanna in the Highest!

Introduction There are many admirable attributes of the human nature that God could have chosen to focus on concerning our salvation. He could have focused in on wisdom. He does praise young King Solomon highly and rewards him highly for asking for wisdom to lead God's people. Wisdom was rewarded and praised and is an admirable trait. He could have focused on courage or boldness, like the courage of Samson facing all those Philistines with the jaw bone of a donkey, or the boldness of Peter and John in front of the Sanhedrin. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they proclaimed the word of God boldly. He could have zeroed in on that character trait for the salvation of our souls. He could have zeroed in on compassion or humility or generosity or kindness. He could have focused on love. Love has an entire chapter in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. Love is even compared to other admirable attributes; “And now, these three remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” But it was none of these character traits that God zeroed in on for the salvation of a sinful soul. No, it was faith that God zeroed in on. “The righteous will live by faith,” the scripture says. “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why faith? Faith Comes From God God hates our boasting. He has very wisely saved us in a way that we cannot boast about the process. How can you boast about faith? What does faith do but receive what God will give. That's all. It's like the eyesight of the soul, it just receives what's there. It doesn't create anything. It just receives what God is willing to give. How do you boast about that? Imagine standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon and you saw all those purples and browns and reds, and you saw the beauty there and somebody said, "Isn't that incredible? Isn't God magnificent to make something like that!" And someone else said, "Yeah, but my eyesight, now, I can see it, okay. I have great eyesight. Let's talk about that for a while." There's nothing to talk about. "Yeah, that's good, that's good. Why don't you go sit over here and think about your eye sight while I look at this grandeur.” “It's out there, it's magnificent, it's glorious and my eyes just happened to bring it into me that I may receive it.” So how can we boast about our faith? How wise is God! But also, in a perverted way, how wise is Satan to attack faith so that we don't understand it properly. We must have clear teaching about faith, because there's a lot of misunderstanding about faith as well. There are well-publicized movements that focus on faith: The faith healers, the Word of Faith movement, etcetera, that sees faith somewhat like a commodity that you can trade with God based on if you have enough. Like a bag of gold dust hanging at your belt, and God's got His scales, and if you've got enough faith, like a commodity, you can pour your faith on to the scale and it'll trip over, and God is forced to give you what you ask for. It's like a commodity that you can have and you got to go get more if you don't have enough. If you're pulling out your little bag and God looks at you, "I tell you right now, you don't have enough faith. So go get some more faith and then you can have the thing you ask of Me." In the end, faith turns in somewhat of a work of man, that if you have enough of this thing called Faith, then God's got to give you whatever you ask. The dark side of that whole word of faith approach is that, if you have any kind of suffering in your life, if there's a loved one, like the Syrophoenician woman's daughter who is demon-possessed, or you have some illness, or there's some issue and you come to the matter, and you don't get the healing and the person dies, or something, it's because you didn't have enough faith. So now, not only do you have the loss of the loved one, you now are told that was, indirectly told it was your fault, that if you'd had enough faith, this would never have happened. It’s similar to Job's friends basically saying, "Well, I see that you're going through great suffering. Just want you to know it's your fault. And if you would just kind of out with it about your sin, then we could get on with the healing and all that." It's about the same thing. You're left devastated. 1980 Harvest House published a book by Larry Parker entitled We Let Our Son Die. The book tells a tragic story of how Larry and his wife, after being influenced by one of America's numerous Word of Faith or Word-Faith teachers, withheld insulin from their diabetic son, Wesley. Predictably, Wesley fell into a diabetic coma and died. The Parkers, through that whole process, were warned about the impropriety of making a negative confession, saying anything negative about the whole thing. They continued to trust God and to speak words of faith concerning this matter until finally he died. Even after his death, they refused to have a funeral, but instead had a resurrection service for their son, trusting God based on a revelation they'd had that their son would be raised from the dead. It wasn't until a year later that they started to realize that they'd gotten hold of some bad teaching, and it focused on this matter of faith. If it were just limited to the seriousness of that situation, physical death for a loved one, that would be bad enough, but instead it's going to the heart of the way that God saves our sinful souls. We are justified by faith. We must understand it, therefore. We don't go to the Word-Faith teachers, we don't go to these fad, weird movements to find out what faith is. We must go to the Scriptures. The verses today are one of the accounts that I would bring someone to who wanted to understand what is the nature of true faith. Why? Because Jesus commends this Syrophoenician woman for her faith. He focuses on it. In verse 28 it says, "Jesus answered, 'Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted.' And her daughter was healed from that very hour." The Context of Jesus’ Interaction with the Canaanite Woman It's good for us to learn from the Syrophoenician woman, to find out from her example what is great faith, faith that Jesus will commend. As we come to this encounter, we're coming to, I think, one of Jesus's most puzzling interactions. Admit it, haven't you wondered about this one before? It's a little bit strange. Robert Stein in his book, Difficult Passages in the Gospels, chooses this as one of the passages he deals with. Why is it difficult? Stein says this, "The problem is obvious. Jesus' words appear harsh, austere, insensitive. They seem atypical of Jesus. In the Gospels, He is portrayed as a kind, loving and compassionate savior. The words of this account would cause little difficulty coming from a mean, harsh, unloving individual. The Jesus of the gospels, however, is a loving and kind Jesus with a special compassion for the outcasts of society, and this woman is an outcast in the Jewish mind." That's why this passage is difficult. It seems strange that Jesus would answer like this. Let's understand the context, first of all. It begins, verse 21, "Jesus left that place or leaving that place, He withdrew." Now the Greek word “there” just means, it means more than just went away. He's in effect bringing about a strategic withdrawal in His ministries, retreating strategically at this point. Why? I think to escape the building pressure. The pressure was building around His ministry. Pressure from the huge multitudes who are crushing in on Him on every side, demanding, yearning for Him to meet their physical needs. In Mark 6:31 it says, "Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, 'Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.' So, they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place." That's the retreat approach. Or again, this crowd, after Jesus had fed the 5,000 in John's account, are pressing in on Him and want to seize him and take Him by force and make Him king. Jesus's response here is the same. John 6:15, "Jesus knowing that they intended to come and make Him king by a force, withdrew again to a mountain by Himself." So again, He's withdrawing. Strategic withdrawal. There's a pressure from the crowd, the adoring and needy crowd. Secondly, there's pressure from the secular authorities. The king, for example, Herod Antipas, who thinks that Jesus may be John the Baptist risen from the dead and that's why miraculous powers are at work in Him. He killed John and so Herod may be pushing matters to accelerate Jesus's death. That may be some of the pressure that Jesus is feeling. I think in the immediate preceding account, however, is pressure from the Jewish religious authorities. The Scribes and Pharisees who had already decided, in Matthew 12:14, that Jesus had to die. They already decided that, and now they are basically amassing evidence or pushing a case so that they can have Him executed. The previous encounter was about hand-washing, and the ceremonial law, the ritual washing and all that. In that account, Jesus offended them and the disciples told Him about it. In Matthew 15:12, the disciples came to Him and asked, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?" So for all of these pressures, I think Jesus desires a strategic withdrawal to let things cool off a bit. It's like it's boiling over and it's going too fast, it's time to cool it off a bit because everything's been timed out. There's an exact time for Jesus to die, it's not yet. There's another aspect, I think, and that's so that Jesus could focus on His apostles and just work with them for a while and just pour Himself into them and build them up. But it didn't work, because it says in Mark's gospel in this parallel account, Mark 7:24-25, "Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, yet He could not keep His presence a secret." No way to keep the presence of Jesus, the Son of God, a secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about Him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at His feet. That's how the encounter begins. So Jesus is trying to find a quiet place to work with His disciples, but it's no good. The woman finds Him and presses her need forward at this moment. Now, Tyre and Sidon are an interesting place in Biblical history. They are notorious to some degree in Jewish history. The region of Tyre and Sidon had a good beginning in scripture, as the wise king Hiram was a good friend to King David, and once David had established himself in Jerusalem, sent him timber and different materials to build his palace. In the time when Solomon, David's son, was building the palace, he again supplied him with building materials. They had a good relationship. But it went south from there, after King Hiram. Tyre was a gentile trading area where goods would be sent out all over that region of the Mediterranean. They became very wealthy, plying that commercial trade. With it came all of the corruption of being a nautical seaport. All kinds of evil, as a matter of fact, Isaiah likened the region of Tyre and Sidon to a prostitute plying her trade. It's somewhat of a defiled area, defiled by their wealth and their prosperity. Worse, they involve themselves in buying and selling human slaves from the ancient Near East, from Edom, and even including the Jews, buying and selling them. This is talked about in the book of Amos. But worse still, when Jerusalem fell, the people of Tyre and Sidon mocked and celebrated the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel talks about this. In Ezekiel 26, "Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, 'Aha, the gate to the nations is broken and its doors swing open to me now that she lies in ruin, I will prosper.'" Judgement comes on Tyre and Sidon. In Ezekiel 28, the oracle to the King of Tyre is couched in such language that you're not sure if it's talking about the human king of Tyre or Satan himself, implying that, it's like demonic forces are behind Tyre and Sidon. Several prophets, therefore, predicted the total devastation of Tyre and Sidon, including Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Jeremiah and Isaiah. However, Jesus knew the people of Tyre and Sidon even a little bit better. He made some remarkable statements about them. First of all, He knew that hundreds of Gentiles had been coming to see Him and to listen to Him preach and to have their illnesses cured. In Luke 6:17-19 it says, "A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases, those troubled by evil spirits, all of them were cured and the people tried to touch Him because power was coming out from Him and healing them all." This whole region is coming to listen to Jesus preach, and He's healing them. One of Jesus's most amazing statements though, He made earlier in Matthew's Gospel, when He denounces the Jewish cities in which most of His miracles had been performed because they didn't repent. He said, "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sack cloth and ashes. But I tell you, it'll be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you." Now, who was this woman that Jesus deals with? Matthew describes her as a Canaanite, the very people that God had commanded Joshua to destroy completely when the Jews conquered the Promised Land. Canaanite women, in particular, were the focus of a warning in Deuteronomy 7:1-6 in which God warned the men of his people, “Do not intermarry with Canaanite women because they will turn your heart away from worship of the true God.” But Mark goes into even more detail about this Canaanite woman. In Mark 7:26, it says the woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia, so she's frequently called the Syrophoenician woman. This woman would have been a complete outcast as far as the Jews were concerned. They would have had nothing to do with her. Nothing at all. But yet, she has a tremendous faith in Christ and for all times she's memorialized here in the text of scripture, as an example of great conquering faith. How beautiful is that? Now what was her plight, what was her problem? Her little daughter was demon-possessed, verse 22, "A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him crying out, 'Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession." Mark's gospel heightens the fact that she's young, she's a little daughter, using an extra Greek word, so there's a sense of a little helpless girl being tormented by a demon. Demon possession is a very serious spiritual affliction. A demon, a fallen angel, a spiritual being takes over the mind and personality and even the body of a human being. The demon and demons do bodily harm to the individual and they cause somewhat of a living hell for those around that care about that individual because there's nothing they can do. There's no power that can deal with this demonic force. This seems to have been, if you can imagine, an especially bad case. There's extra words that give a sense of, she's suffering terribly from demon possession. False Options behind Jesus’ Strange Interaction with the Canaanite Woman Then Jesus begins a series of strange actions at this particular moment. The first thing, is He doesn't answer her at all. Look at verse 23, "Jesus did not answer a word." Secondly, his disciples come to Him and urge Him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." Jesus seems to focus His ministry only on the Jews, and He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." He says this in her hearing. He doesn't even address her directly, He just says it to His disciples. Third, in finally dealing with her directly, He seems to insult her and call her a dog. "The woman came and knelt before Him, 'Lord, help me,' she said. He replied, 'It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.'" This is a series of strange actions on Jesus's part. There's some mitigating factors. We don't have facial expression or body language or tone of voice, we don't have any of that. We just have His words and you know, there's a way to say something that doesn't sound as harsh. It could be playful, like a riddle. He could be saying it like that. We don't know. We weren't there, so we don't know the non-verbals that went along with this statement. Secondly, the Greek implies that Jesus had a longer conversation with her than is recorded here. Jesus was saying to her, "It's not right to take the children's bread." It's not just one simple proverb, and then He's done. It seems like He's having a conversation with her, but you only get part of it here. Then also this word dogs, it's not the harsh word for dog, like a rabid beast that roams the streets picking through garbage and is a threat to the populace, that kind of a dog, like a roaming wolf. But rather, the word used here is more like a household pet, like a puppy. So it would be like, "It's not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their puppies." There's some mitigating factors but all of that said, it's still a strange interaction on Jesus's part. What is going on here? What were Christ's motives? That's what we have to ask. Why did He treat her like this? Let's rule out some things that cannot be. Let's rule out false options. It's not because Jesus didn't care about Gentiles. Let's start right there. He knew very well that Abraham had been promised 2,000 years before in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Jesus knew that very well because Jesus's Heavenly Father, said in the words of Isaiah the prophet[Isaiah 49:6], “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant. To restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.” That's too small a commission for Jesus just to save the Jews. “Ask of me, and I'll give the nations as your inheritance, the ends of the Earth as your possession.” After Jesus was born, Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms and praised God saying, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel.” If Simeon knew that, Jesus knew it; can we concede that? Jesus knew very well that He was to be the light for the Gentiles, and in His ministry, Jesus had already dealt many times very positively with Gentiles — the Roman centurion He deals very graciously with and very lovingly with. Then there's the Samaritan woman, the half-breed, half Jewish, half Gentile, but He is so loving and gracious to her, He doesn't hesitate at all. After Christ's resurrection, He would send His disciples to the ends of the earth, and one of the places they would go would be this very region of Tyre and Sidon. He had a saving plan for them, and soon, in the Book of Acts, there's a church in this area beautifully growing. Paul, on his journey to Jerusalem back to Jerusalem, lands at Phoenicia. He goes and visits the disciples in Tyre and they welcome Paul warmly. Through the spirit, they warn him not to go to Jerusalem and after that they take him out with his entourage, and they kneel on the beach together, and pray. There's such a loving encounter there in a church made up of people from Tyre and Sidon. Jesus knew all of this would come. Clearly Jesus had a saving intention for the entire world, including the people of Tyre and Sidon. Secondly, it's not because He lacked power to do miracles in Gentile territory. Jesus is God omnipotent, there is nothing He cannot do. He's not more God in Israel than He was in the gentile areas. There's nothing He cannot do, and He's going to prove this directly by giving her her request. There's no lack of power to do miracles, not at all. Thirdly, it's not because He lacked mercy or compassion for her plight or her daughter. Jesus was infinitely filled with mercy and compassion; the most perfectly compassionate man in history. Four separate times in Matthew's gospel, it links one of Jesus's miraculous healings to his compassion, his heart is moved with compassion and He heals. Basically anybody who comes to Jesus as a beggar, humbly asking for a healing like this, they get it. It doesn't matter who they are, so it can't be that He lacked compassion. And it can't be that He was weary and annoyed and irritable after a long hard day. You may be like that from time to time, maybe not, getting irritable and saying something you wish you hadn't said. Has that ever happened to you? You wish you could have the words back. James 3:2 says, “We all stumble in many ways.” Isn't it true? We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, what is he? He's a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. Is there a perfect man? Was there a perfect man who was able to keep his whole body in check? Yes, His name is Jesus. He never stumbled in what He said. Never. So it's not that He was weary and irritable after a long, hard day. I'm not saying Jesus didn't get weary, I'm not saying He didn't get tired, I'm not saying that there aren't temptations, I'm just saying He never yielded to any temptation and everything He said was perfect. Jesus spoke the words of life. He says in John 6:63, “My words are spirit and they are life.” Jesus is the Word of God; He doesn't throw words aside like you and I do. When He speaks there's a reason. Fifth, it's not because He's taking a break from ministry and doesn't want to care for her needs at this point. “I’m on vacation.” That's not it. Jesus could both take a strategic retreat, and care for her needs as He does. He's not shocked or dismayed when there's a huge crowd in Tyre and Sidon that hears of his being there. He's not surprised at all, He knew full well that this was going to be part of his ministry. Six, it's not because there's only so much bread for the children and once it's been given out, there's none extra. Do you think Jesus would have been more taxed to feed 6,000 than He was to feed 5,000? What do you think? There’s a little extra miracle-working power, a little more sweat on Jesus's part, it's impossible. 60,000, 600,000. He fed 2 million Jews in the desert for 40 years. Is the arm of the Lord too short? He can do anything. It's not because there's only so much bread for the children and once that's gone, then the dogs eat or the children are going to starve, that's not it, at all. It's not because the woman didn't ask properly or with enough humility or enough faith or any of that, none of that. The Redemption Plan of God for the Jew & the Gentile Why then? First let's look at redemption, the redemption plan of God to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. This principal is stated again and again in Scripture. After Jesus was raised from the dead, the apostle Peter spoke about this to the Jews in the temple, [Acts 3:26], “For you first, you Jews God raised up his servant, and sent him to bless you, by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.” The apostle Paul taught this, and lived this out again and again in His ministry. He was the apostle to the Gentiles, but every city he went to, he went first to the synagogue, didn't he? That's where he started. To the Jew first, he says in Pisidia in Antioch. He and Barnabas had preached there. The Jews become hostile, they begin to reject the message. This is what Paul says in Acts 13:46, “Then Paul and Barnabas answered the Jews boldly. ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first; since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life. We now turn to the Gentiles.’” Do you see that ordering? Now, “you Gentiles.” I'm a Gentile, too. We should not feel offended by this. This was just God's strategic ordering, this is what He chose to do, and He says it again, and again. He wrote about it in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile.” This was God's strategy. That Jesus, the Son of God, would go to his own people, and they would reject Him, and that they would turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and then on the third day, He would be raised to life. That was part of God's strategy. It's spelled out very plainly in John 1:11, “He came to his own, but his own people did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, To those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children, not born of the flesh, or of blood, or of water, but of the Spirit of God.” Jesus says in verse 24, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Christ hadn't died on the cross yet, so the barrier to the Gentiles was still up. There was still a barrier separating Jew from Gentile which was spoken of in Ephesians 2 where Paul said, "Therefore remember, that formerly you who are Gentiles, by birth and called uncircumcised, by those who call themselves a circumcision that done in the body by the hands of men. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. That's what you were, but now he has destroyed in his body the barrier between the two, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace and in this one body, to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which He put to death their hostility.” This hadn't happened yet. The curtain in the temple, hadn't been torn in two from top to bottom, so there were still a focus on the Jews. Also, there's a strategy here. Jesus is focusing on the children of Israel, but within them, his disciples, and within them, the 12 apostles. He's got a strategy to pour Himself out. It could be that He's saying, “Look, I'm here to focus on the apostles, it's not right for me to be doing a wide ministry of the Gentiles, right now. I've got to spend time with these men and pour myself into them.” That's all possible. One of the most common answers to this is that Jesus was doing it to test her faith. More specifically, He's humbling her, and seeing if she would overcome the obstacles. Perhaps this is true, but I don't think it goes far enough. I think Jesus knew her heart very well. He wasn't merely testing her faith, I think he was actually developing and strengthening her faith and then putting it on display for us. Like a physical therapist will develop a weak or injured muscle by opposing motion so that the person is forced through some pain to strengthen that weakened muscle and develop it. The therapist in a very wise way will oppose the motion and strengthen and build up that damaged muscle. So Jesus seems to oppose her and fight against her despite the fact that He really does desire to give her what she wants. Ultimately, He means to put this woman's faith on display for all time. The Focus of Faith So, what is the nature of true faith, what then is true faith? Well, first, it has a basis in something. We don't have faith in faith itself. There are a lot people like that — True faith is a leap into the black darkness. You imagine some pitch black night and you're on top of a skyscraper and you're running off screaming into the dark hoping something's going to catch you, and that's faith. That is not faith. It's not essentially our optimistic outlook- “I believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows. I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows.” John McArthur said this sort of faith is essentially faith in faith, which is to say no faith at all. “To jump out of an airplane with a parachute is an act of faith. To jump without a parachute, while exclaiming I believe, is an act of stupidity. To say no more than I believe in love, or I believe in believing or I believe it will all work out is contentless faith, and therefore, pointless and powerless.” Faith focuses on something. It focuses on God — His nature, His promises, His work in the past as revealed in Scripture. That's what faith focuses on. This Canaanite woman clearly had heard of Jesus's miracles, she knew of the Jewish prophecies concerning the Messiah. Look at the title she uses and the expectation she has that Jesus will heal her daughter. Lord, son of David, she calls him. How does a Gentile woman know Son of David? Faith comes from hearing the message about Christ; that's where her faith has come from. The Reverence of Faith We see also the reverence of faith. She calls him Lord. Later on she bows down before him and worships him. She is submissive, she is reverent, she doesn't presume on him, she doesn't demand from him. How different is that from the “name it and claim it” crowd that bosses God around like he's some kind of a house boy as though God somehow loves to be bossed around like he's a house boy. He doesn't. He is a sovereign king and it says in Ecclesiastes 5:2, it says, “Do not be quick with your mouth, and do not be hasty in your heart to bring up anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on Earth, so let your words be few.” Stand in awe of God. The more you believe, the more reverence and awe you'll have for God. You're not going to boss him around. I hate that aspect of that Word of Faith movement, it forgets reverence. Remember what Abraham said, when carrying on intercessory prayer over Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18? Abraham spoke up and said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord though I am nothing but dust and ashes. . .” So also the Syrophoenician woman, she had a submissive humility to her. The Confidence of Faith We see also the confidence of faith. She was absolutely certain that Jesus could do this, wasn't she? That's why she kept coming. She's so persistent, she calls him Lord, so she knows he can do all things. The essence of great faith is great confidence that God has the power to do what you ask him to do. Abraham had it in Romans 4:21, “Abraham being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.” That's our God; that's the confidence of faith. He can do anything, infinitely more than you could ask or imagine. The Repentance of Faith We see also the repentance of faith. “Have mercy on me,” she calls. She recognizes that she doesn't deserve anything from the Lord; she's a sinner. She may not know the verse because it hadn't been written yet, but she understood the concept, that Paul wrote in Romans 9:15, “For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” God has the power sovereignly to decide who He's going to have mercy on and who He won't. So you come asking for mercy, you come with repentance, humility, knowing that you don't deserve a favorable outcome. Once we acknowledge that we are sinners, all we can do is cry out for mercy and humbly accept what God chooses to give. Anything we get is more than we deserve. Repentance and faith, I think are two sides of the same coin. Genuine saving faith involves turning away from wickedness and sin and turning to the Lord who can save you from it.It's both. The Persistence of Faith We also see the persistence of faith. Jesus puts up one road block after another and she overcomes every one of them. True belief is persistent. Notice also with intercession here, she has linked herself to the plight of her daughter. That is true intercession. You want to know what intercessory prayer. It is when you really care about the person and what you're praying for as though it were happening to you. Look what Jesus says in verse 22. “ Have mercy on me,” she says. In verse 24, “Lord help me.” I think God sometimes tests our prayer because we don't care about people enough. Let me just speak about myself. I think that God tests me in prayer because I don't care about people like I should and so sometimes he wants me to come on more strongly, and care more about what I'm praying for. He doesn't give it to us right away. So faith overcomes all obstacles through persistence. The Humility of Faith We see the humility of faith. Jesus said, “You know it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs.” What came out of her mouth next, just moved me this morning as I was thinking about this text. It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs. “True Lord,” she said. Wow. Where's the pride at that point? Where is the bridling up? “I’ve got some things that... I'm pretty good here. I'm not a dog at least.” There is an incredible humility here in this woman. “True Lord,” she says. “I’m closer to a dog than I am to you.” John the Baptist put it this way, “After me will come one who's more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” Is that true? The angels hide their faces in front of Jesus. She accepts it. “Yes, I'm a dog, less than a dog, but please heal my daughter anyway.” Here's the miracle of grace, that God can take a dog and make her one of his children. It's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs. How about if he makes her one of the children, how about then? Does He have that kind of power to take a wretch and make us His treasure? We're worse than dogs when we rebel against the king, but God's grace is sufficient to take us out of that rebellion and save us entirely. This is the reward of faith. Look at verse 28, "Then Jesus answered, ‘Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” You know, I've heard this expression, “We need to storm the gates of heaven.” I don't like it. It implies that heaven is like a walled fortress against us, somewhat our enemy, and we have the power to overcome that adversary and make him give us what we demand which He doesn't want to give.. It's wrong. It forgets how powerful He is. It forgets how loving He is, how much readier to give us blessing than we are to ask for it. Forget storming the gates of heaven. Go like a child to your father and ask. “Which of you fathers, if a son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” That's the way to think, and if He doesn't give it right away, He's strengthening you and helping you. He's got a plan and the reward of faith is that your request is granted, dear woman, and her daughter was healed from that very hour. Application This is an incredible miracle, really, it is but I think there's a greater one, far greater, and it has to do with the greatness of the blessing and the greatness of the cost. What did she get for all of that? She got a healed daughter. You may be sitting here today listening to me in an unregenerate state. You may never have a demon-possessed daughter. Does this passage have anything to say to you? Yes, it does. Jesus has something far greater to give you then the healing of a demon-possessed daughter. He has eternity in Heaven at His right hand where there are pleasures forevermore. He has full forgiveness of sins available for you. You may not have a demon-possessed daughter, but you have a sin-saturated soul. If you're sitting here listening to me, in an unregenerate state you are not ready to die. There is a record against you of all that you have ever said or done and you're not ready to face that record. If you're here today in a graceless state, if you don't know Christ as your savior, you're not ready to die. All you have to do is believe in Him. Jesus shed His blood on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, just like yours, and He is eminently capable to cover all of your sins through simple faith. That's all it is. Just receive what He has promised to give. “If anyone comes to me, I will in no wise cast them out.” Trust in Him. You may be listening to me and you've already trusted in Christ. Are you done coming to Jesus? No. That was just the first time you came. You know you've come again and again and again. He is still more ready to give you what you're asking for, than you are to receive it. It will always be that way. Pray then like this woman and care about somebody else the way she cared about her daughter. Take up their case and press it in as this woman did, not storming the gates of heaven as though heaven's your enemy. Heaven's your eternal home; you're going to live there forever. It's not an enemy, but with persistence and with humility go and ask for what God has laid on your heart and ask until He gives it to you, and let his wisdom decide when that will be.