Be a Person of Principle. Spider-Silk Dairy. Works of the Flesh.

 

For “Scripture Sunday”.  Late again, as it’s Tuesday.

Be a Person of Principle, Part 3

Honesty  “The world sees dishonesty as a spectrum: from white lies to outright deception. Is God’s view on honesty equally complex?

YouTube:    https://youtu.be/0mTM2Ln8o0A

Transcript

[Steve Myers] “We’ve been talking about how to be a person of principle. To do that, there’s a number of principles to live by. I’ve kind of titled these the “no matter whats”. No matter what, we have to obey God if we’re to be someone that’s called out of the ways of this world. No matter what, we have to have confidence and trust and faith that God will do what He says He’ll do. It’s a promise. So we have to, no matter what, trust God, despite our circumstances.

There’s another principle to this whole concept – that no matter what, in our behavior we have to be honest. No matter what. No matter what, honesty is showing that we’re striving for that ultimate standard – the stature of Jesus Christ. And this is a challenge. It may seem obvious, okay, we can’t lie, we’ve got to be honest. But the problem is our world around us is not in that mindset at all.

I was reading through a number of different surveys – in fact, you could Google them on the internet – that talk about the number of times the average person lies. You might be astonished to see some of those numbers. One study I read said Americans lie, on average, thirteen times a day. Thirteen times a day, average. Average. In fact, in one survey that I read, 91 percent of the people said they lied regularly. Now I suppose the problem with that survey is you can’t tell if they’re telling the truth or they’re actually lying about lying. But nonetheless, I think we’ve all experienced this very thing, that there are problems with truth in our culture today, and we can’t venture into that area at all. God’s called us out of that world. And so we have to be honest, no matter what.

There’s a wonderful proverb that deals with this in Proverbs 11:3. Here’s what it says: “The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” Now, it’s said a little bit differently – the Living Bible says this, in verse 3: “A good man is guided by his honesty; the evil man is destroyed by his dishonesty.” So we’ve got to make a choice every single day to be that honest person, no matter what. That’s what God’s called us to, that no matter the circumstances, no matter the reasons – white lies are just as unacceptable as any other kind of lie. We must be honest. We can’t be – well, like a story I heard about the politicians. Someone said, “Well, I think when I grow up I’ll go into politics because then I won’t get in trouble for lying.” Now, wait a second. You do get in trouble for lying. Lying has consequences.

I was reading a survey about lying and the effects even of what lying has on your health. It was a survey that was done at Notre Dame a couple of years ago. And they had a group of people, that they said, “Okay, you just be normal. Tell the normal lies you normally do.” Then they had the other group that they studied, that they told them, “Do your very best not to lie at all.” And so over a period of time they studied these two groups, and you know one of the things that they found? Those that tried not to lie had better health. They had less stress in their lives, their blood pressure was lower, they had less problems overall physically than the lying group. So that’s kind of an interesting thought, when you consider even the effects of lying. It can affect our mental health. It can affect our physical health. So no wonder God said don’t lie. Don’t lie. And He made it one of the big ten, one of the big Ten Commandments. And so, it’s important, if we’re to be a person of principle, no matter what, be honest.” From: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-daily/be-a-person-of-principle-part-3-honesty

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Making Spider Silk

An Amazing Fact: “One of the most amazing materials in nature is the light, flexible, yet incredibly strong compound spiders use to catch unsuspecting insects. It’s spider silk. Pound for pound, the threads produced by these little arachnids can hold more weight than the most sophisticated manufactured materials. The silk in a spider web is an extremely strong substance that has a tensile strength of 300,000 pounds per square inch and is both stronger and lighter than compounds based on steel.

For a long time people have known about the impressive properties of spider silk, and some have dreamed of being able to create it, perhaps the way that the ancient Chinese learned to produce silk from silkworms. But unlike the gentle silkworm, spiders are aggressive, territorial, and not easily domesticated. Up until now all attempts to synthesize spider silk have failed, but a new venture involving gene-splicing is showing considerable promise.

A Canadian company, Nexia Biotechnologies, appears on the verge of manufacturing a substance similar to spider silk through a surprising method, using the milk of goats. Researchers put the spider silk gene into milk animals, since there are close anatomical similarities between the silk-producing glands of spiders and the milk-producing glands of these mammals. The scientists spliced the spider silk gene into cells taken from the mammary glands of goats. The silk genes worked with amazing efficiency in the mammary cells, and Nexia scientists were soon producing high-quality spider silk.

Now the challenge will be to mass breed these transgenic goats and extract the pure silk protein from the milk and spin it into fabric. If the new stock of genetically altered goats produce as expected, Nexia will have the beginnings of a spider-silk dairy. The product, called “BioSteel,” may soon be used for a variety of applications, from medical sutures to artificial tendons or ligaments. It could be used to create lighter and stronger bulletproof vests, and even for the coatings of space stations to protect them from micro-meteorites.

It’s interesting to consider how many of man’s inventions have been plagiarized from the amazing creatures God has designed. The most amazing fact is that many people think all these wonders of nature have evolved by chance!”
KEY BIBLE TEXTS
O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. Psalms 104:24

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Works of the Flesh

Galatians 5:19-21

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The works of the flesh are actions and attitudes that are diametrically opposed to God’s ways. They violate the letter or the intent of God’s holy, just and good law (Romans 7:12).

The works of the flesh are the natural, default setting in this evil age (Galatians 1:4), but without repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ’s awesome sacrifice to provide for the forgiveness of our sins, these works will keep us out of the pure and righteous Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God will be governed according to God’s law of love, summarized in the 10 Commandments. Under God’s rule, eventually the works of the flesh and their natural consequences of suffering and death will be removed (Revelation 21:4-8; 22:14-15).

For more about the Kingdom of God, see our inspiring booklet The Mystery of the Kingdom. For more about the works of the flesh, see our blog series beginning with “Fighting the Works of the Flesh: Adultery.”

More to read
“Christ Lives in Me”
A Sure Hope
A Spirit of Power, Love and a Sound Mind
Strangers Become Family
Pentecost and the Birth of the Church

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Update:

Roy and I worked some more on the wiring in the new kitchen in the guest house.  We split up one circuit which had too many outlets on it, and fished the wires down for the under-cabinet lights.  We also planned the sewer part of the plumbing, and got the fittings ready.  We spent one whole morning getting things ready to take to the consignment shop in Conroe.  We were cleaning, mending, polishing and Old-Englishing lots of items which will be dropped off when I take my SPCA foster cats for their annual rabies shots in Conroe. 

We also installed the air conditioner in the part of the guest house which will be the new bedroom.  The inside wall dividing it and the living room isn’t built yet, so when it’s not too hot we just use that smaller air conditioner.  It’s a lot quieter and more economical than the big one which will be for the living room and new kitchen.

We also did a bit of work on the Arctic Fox Fifth Wheel that is for sale on my side lot.  I was glad that we did as a man who lives down the road saw it and is talking about buying it. It looks enormous. He had just lost his Arctic Fox Fifth Wheel in the recent floods.   I know that I will never drag a great big thing like that around, and anyway, I would rather have a Park Model, they aren’t so tall and foreboding!

I made some of the ancient grain, farro, ground beef and veggies in a recipe called Italian Style Farro, for the church potluck.  One of the ladies who doesn’t cook had given me lots of farro for the potlucks.

The Bible readings were Prov. 8: 22-33, Num. 25:10-30:1, 1 Kings 18:46-19:21 and John 7:1-31.  The Teaching was about The Gospel Differences in their descriptions of the End Times.  How it was foretold in Genesis 19 about the similarity to the times of Lot and the End Times spoken of in the Gospels.

Since they cut down the trees, there isn’t a shady spot in the church parking lot.  I put sunshades up on three windows but the car was still uncomfortable when I was leaving, as it was a very hot day.