Short Christian devotionals or writings or sermons for encouragements from CH Spurgeon

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 27 February, Evening

“Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” - Micah 5:2

The Lord Jesus had goings forth for his people as their representative before the throne, long before they appeared upon the stage of time. It was “from everlasting” that he signed the compact with his Father, that he would pay blood for blood, suffering for suffering, agony for agony, and death for death, in the behalf of his people; it was “from everlasting” that he gave himself up without a murmuring word. That from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot he might sweat great drops of blood, that he might be spit upon, pierced, mocked, rent asunder, and crushed beneath the pains of death. His goings forth as our Surety were from everlasting. Pause, my soul, and wonder! Thou hast goings forth in the person of Jesus “from everlasting.” Not only when thou wast born into the world did Christ love thee, but his delights were with the sons of men before there were any sons of men. Often did he think of them; from everlasting to everlasting he had set his affection upon them. What! my soul, has he been so long about thy salvation, and will not he accomplish it? Has he from everlasting been going forth to save me, and will he lose me now? What! Has he carried me in his hand, as his precious jewel, and will he now let me slip from between his fingers? Did he choose me before the mountains were brought forth, or the channels of the deep were digged, and will he reject me now? Impossible! I am sure he would not have loved me so long if he had not been a changeless Lover. If he could grow weary of me, he would have been tired of me long before now. If he had not loved me with a love as deep as hell, and as strong as death, he would have turned from me long ago. Oh, joy above all joys, to know that I am his everlasting and inalienable inheritance, given to him by his Father or ever the earth was! Everlasting love shall be the pillow for my head this night.

Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 27 February, Evening

On this site you can also find: Encouragements for Christian / Christian encouragements / Encouragements Quotes / Poem encouraging believers / Christian encouragement quotes / simple Christian sermons on encouragement / christian encouragements / biblical sermon on encouragement / Christian bookmark templates / 2010 Christian calendar template / Free printable Bible quotes / Free encouraging sermons / Biblical verse of encouragement for the believers and sermons / Free Christian encouraging images / Free christian encouraging pictures /  Christian encouragements phrases

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Various Bible verses , Birthday Prayer , All things for good , God is our refuge and strength , God's Grace , Strength from God, Prayers , With God all things are possible , God holds my tomorrow , Help me to remember, Lord, nothings gonna happen today that you and I can't handle together , The Cross in My Pocket , Whatever our need , When there seems no way out, let God in , You are never alone , Chinese Bible verses

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- Big Wall Christian Calendar in one (1) page - 12 Monthly printable Calendars 2011 January to December (Jan - Dec 2011)

Free Christian Cards Templates:

A Special Birthday Prayer for You , Christian cards with Bible verses , God holds my tomorrow , Whatever our need , With God all things are possible , Your Friendship is a Blessing

Is Mourning Rewarding?

YOU GREW TIRED OF MY EMBRACE

Light projection by Jenny Holzer

Poetry by Mahmoud Darwish (He Embraced His Murderer)

Rejection in love (Fisher et al., 2010) and complicated grief (O'Connor et al., 2008) as rewarding phenomena?

Fig. 1 (Fisher et al., 2010). Group regional activation specific to the rejector stimulus in reward systems and other areas. A: axial view. Ventral tegmental area (VTA, right arrow). The VTA regions overlap those affected when looking at a lover while happily in love (Aron et al., 2005). The cross hair (middle arrow) marks an area of activation that includes the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum.

Fig. 2A (O'Connor et al., 2008). Nucleus accumbens activity (10, 20, −6) in response to grief-related vs. neutral words that was significantly greater in the Complicated Grief group compared to the Noncomplicated Grief group (pictured at p < .05).


If tremendous psychological suffering and loss are associated with activity in brain regions such as the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, isn't it time to abandon the simplistic notion of dopamine as the feel-good neurotransmitter? To quote the authors of Mesolimbic Dopamine in Desire and Dread (Faure et al., 2008):

It is important to understand how mesocorticolimbic mechanisms generate positive versus negative motivations. Dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens is well known as a mechanism of appetitive motivation for reward. However, aversive motivations such as pain, stress, and fear also may involve dopamine in nucleus accumbens (at least tonic dopamine signals).

References

Faure A, Reynolds SM, Richard JM, Berridge KC. (2008). Mesolimbic dopamine in desire and dread: enabling motivation to be generated by localized glutamate disruptions in nucleus accumbens. J Neurosci. 28:7184-92.

Fisher HE, Brown LL, Aron A, Strong G, Mashek D. (2010). Reward, addiction, and emotion regulation systems associated with rejection in love. J Neurophysiol. 104:51-60.

O'Connor MF, Wellisch DK, Stanton AL, Eisenberger NI, Irwin MR, Lieberman MD. (2008). Craving love? Enduring grief activates brain's reward center. Neuroimage 42:969-72.

Sample stimulus from Fig. 1 of O'Connor et al., 2008 provides an [unintentional?] example of the emotional Stroop effect.

Short Christian devotionals or writings or sermons for encouragements from CH Spurgeon

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 27 February, Morning

“Thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation.” - Psalm 91:9

The Israelites in the wilderness were continually exposed to change. Whenever the pillar stayed its motion, the tents were pitched; but tomorrow, ere the morning sun had risen, the trumpet sounded, the ark was in motion, and the fiery, cloudy pillar was leading the way through the narrow defiles of the mountain, up the hill side, or along the arid waste of the wilderness. They had scarcely time to rest a little before they heard the sound of “Away! this is not your rest; you must still be onward journeying towards Canaan!” They were never long in one place. Even wells and palm trees could not detain them. Yet they had an abiding home in their God, his cloudy pillar was their roof-tree, and its flame by night their household fire. They must go onward from place to place, continually changing, never having time to settle, and to say, “Now we are secure; in this place we shall dwell.” “Yet,” says Moses, “though we are always changing, Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.” The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich to-day and poor to-morrow; he may be sickly to-day and well to-morrow; he may be in happiness to-day, to-morrow he may be distressed-but there is no change with regard to his relationship to God. If he loved me yesterday, he loves me to-day. My unmoving mansion of rest is my blessed Lord. Let prospects be blighted; let hopes be blasted; let joy be withered; let mildews destroy everything; I have lost nothing of what I have in God. He is “my strong habitation whereunto I can continually resort.” I am a pilgrim in the world, but at home in my God. In the earth I wander, but in God I dwell in a quiet habitation.

Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 27 February, Morning

On this site you can also find: Encouragements for Christian / Christian encouragements / Encouragements Quotes / Poem encouraging believers / Christian encouragement quotes / simple Christian sermons on encouragement / christian encouragements / biblical sermon on encouragement / Christian bookmark templates / 2010 Christian calendar template / Free printable Bible quotes / Free encouraging sermons / Biblical verse of encouragement for the believers and sermons / Free Christian encouraging images / Free christian encouraging pictures /  Christian encouragements phrases

Free Christian Bookmarks Templates:

Various Bible verses , Birthday Prayer , All things for good , God is our refuge and strength , God's Grace , Strength from God, Prayers , With God all things are possible , God holds my tomorrow , Help me to remember, Lord, nothings gonna happen today that you and I can't handle together , The Cross in My Pocket , Whatever our need , When there seems no way out, let God in , You are never alone , Chinese Bible verses

Free Christian Calendars 2011 and Free Christian Planners 2011 with Bible verses:

- Big Wall Christian Calendar in one (1) page - 12 Monthly printable Calendars 2011 January to December (Jan - Dec 2011)

Free Christian Cards Templates:

A Special Birthday Prayer for You , Christian cards with Bible verses , God holds my tomorrow , Whatever our need , With God all things are possible , Your Friendship is a Blessing

Allergy season is extending, scientists find

Bad news for those who suffer their way through ragweed season: A team of researchers has found that increased warming, particularly in the northern half of North America, has added weeks to the fall pollen season. A changing climate means allergy-causing ragweed pollen has not only a longer season but one that extends further north than it did just 16 years ago.

In research that gibes with projections by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, plant and allergy experts found that ragweed pollen season lasted as much as 27 days longer in 2009 than it did in 1995. The further north in the Western Hemisphere, the more dramatic the change in the length of pollen season.

Minneapolis has tacked 16 days to the ragweed pollen season since 1995; LaCrosse, Wisc. has added 13 days, Winnipeg and Saskatoon in Canada have added 25 and 27 days, respectively.

The new research, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds the longer pollen seasons correlate with the disproportionate warming happening around the planet and attributed to greenhouse gas emissions.

Upper latitudes are warming faster than mid-latitudes, and the pollen season is lengthening in proportion. Scientists and health officials found no appreciable warming in Texas, Arkansas or Oklahoma.

The impact goes far beyond mere sniffles and inconvenience. Some 50 million Americans have allergies, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Of those, 35 million suffer nasal allergies, known broadly as hay fever, said Mike Tringale, the association's vice president.

For 75 percent of those 35 million, ragweed (right) is the primary allergen, he added. And in many cases, allergies can trigger a bout of asthma, or make it worse.

Ragweed pollen can cause asthma flare-ups and hay fever, and costs about $21 billion a year in the United States, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is not something that's hypothesized, this is not something that's modeled, this is not something that may or may not occur depending on the math that you do," said study author Lewis Ziska of the U.S. Department of Agriculture crop system and global change laboratory. "This is something that we're actually seeing on the ground in recent years."

Even in places where ragweed season didn't lengthen or even shortened slightly -- such as Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas -- there was lots more pollen, which caused more intense symptoms, said co-author Dr. Jay Portnoy of the Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Section at Children's Mercy Hospital, the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.

Ragweed is probably not the only pollen likely to have a longer season as the planet warms, Portnoy said in a telephone interview.

"We used ragweed as a marker but it's probably true for other pollens too," he said, including tree pollen that causes allergy symptoms in the U.S. spring. (Right: pollen seasons. click to see enlarged image)

Ragweed pollen was a reasonable marker because its season is naturally easy to track.

It's what's known as a short-day plant, which begins blooming when the days start getting shorter, that is, after the Northern Hemisphere summer solstice around June 21. It stops flowering with the first frost.

As global average temperatures have warmed, the first frost has been delayed, especially at higher latitudes, which has meant a longer season for ragweed. Because warming is greater at these high latitudes, the length of the season has been more pronounced.

The findings correlate with analysis last year by the National Wildlife Federation that found ragweed growth rates and pollen counts increased with global warming. In one study, accelerating spring's arrival by 30 days prompted a 54 percent increase in ragweed pollen production.

The danger with a lengthening season - and perhaps a more intense one - is pollen's potential to overwhelm immune systems that, up till now, have withstood the onslaught, Tringale said.

Much as water in a bathtub is not a problem until it starts to overflow, pollen for many is not an irritant until it crosses a particular threshold, he said.

"With the longer season, with the creeping breadth of the geographic footprint of the season, and with more powerful plants producing more pollen, it's a triple threat," he added. "Now you've got yourself a much wider population that could potentially be affected that might not have been affected before.'

Source:
Daily Climate,"Allergy season is extending, scientists find",accessed February 21,2011
Reuters,"Climate change creates longer ragweed season", accessed February 21, 2011
Scientific American, "Climate Change Extends Allergy Season in North America", accessed February 21, 2011

Short Christian devotionals or writings or sermons for encouragements from CH Spurgeon

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 26 February, Evening

“Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.”
- Leviticus 13:13

Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This evening it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and in no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then he is clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy; but when sin is seen and felt, it has received its deathblow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are “nothing else but sin,” for no confession short of this will be the whole truth; and if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment -it will spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the text afford to truly awakened sinners: the very circumstance which so grievously discouraged them is here turned into a sign and symptom of a hopeful state! Stripping comes before clothing; digging out the foundation is the first thing in building-and a thorough sense of sin is one of the earliest works of grace in the heart. O thou poor leprous sinner, utterly destitute of a sound spot, take heart from the text, and come as thou art to Jesus-

“For let our debts be what they may, however great or small,
As soon as we have nought to pay, our Lord forgives us all.
‘Tis perfect poverty alone that sets the soul at large:
While we can call one mite our own, we have no full discharge.”

Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 26 February, Evening

On this site you can also find: Encouragements for Christian / Christian encouragements / Encouragements Quotes / Poem encouraging believers / Christian encouragement quotes / simple Christian sermons on encouragement / christian encouragements / biblical sermon on encouragement / Christian bookmark templates / 2010 Christian calendar template / Free printable Bible quotes / Free encouraging sermons / Biblical verse of encouragement for the believers and sermons / Free Christian encouraging images / Free christian encouraging pictures /  Christian encouragements phrases

Free Christian Bookmarks Templates:

Various Bible verses , Birthday Prayer , All things for good , God is our refuge and strength , God's Grace , Strength from God, Prayers , With God all things are possible , God holds my tomorrow , Help me to remember, Lord, nothings gonna happen today that you and I can't handle together , The Cross in My Pocket , Whatever our need , When there seems no way out, let God in , You are never alone , Chinese Bible verses

Free Christian Calendars 2011 and Free Christian Planners 2011 with Bible verses:

- Big Wall Christian Calendar in one (1) page - 12 Monthly printable Calendars 2011 January to December (Jan - Dec 2011)

Free Christian Cards Templates:

A Special Birthday Prayer for You , Christian cards with Bible verses , God holds my tomorrow , Whatever our need , With God all things are possible , Your Friendship is a Blessing

Short Christian devotionals or writings or sermons for encouragements from CH Spurgeon

Believer Encouragements

Taken from CH Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 26 February, Morning

“Salvation is of the Lord.” - Jonah 2:9

Salvation is the work of God. It is he alone who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is he also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.” If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because he upholds me with his hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.”


Taken from Charles H Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, 26 February, Morning

On this site you can also find: Encouragements for Christian / Christian encouragements / Encouragements Quotes / Poem encouraging believers / Christian encouragement quotes / simple Christian sermons on encouragement / christian encouragements / biblical sermon on encouragement / Christian bookmark templates / 2010 Christian calendar template / Free printable Bible quotes / Free encouraging sermons / Biblical verse of encouragement for the believers and sermons / Free Christian encouraging images / Free christian encouraging pictures /  Christian encouragements phrases

Free Christian Bookmarks Templates:

Various Bible verses , Birthday Prayer , All things for good , God is our refuge and strength , God's Grace , Strength from God, Prayers , With God all things are possible , God holds my tomorrow , Help me to remember, Lord, nothings gonna happen today that you and I can't handle together , The Cross in My Pocket , Whatever our need , When there seems no way out, let God in , You are never alone , Chinese Bible verses

Free Christian Calendars 2011 and Free Christian Planners 2011 with Bible verses:

- Big Wall Christian Calendar in one (1) page - 12 Monthly printable Calendars 2011 January to December (Jan - Dec 2011)

Free Christian Cards Templates:

A Special Birthday Prayer for You , Christian cards with Bible verses , God holds my tomorrow , Whatever our need , With God all things are possible , Your Friendship is a Blessing

A Warming World Could Add Billions to Shipping Costs

Climate change already stands to wreak huge financial damage by inundating coastal cities and harming human health. Now, researchers have added a surprising victim to the toll: ships. In a session today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW), a scientist said that climate change will stimulate the growth of barnacles and other ship-clinging creatures, potentially adding billions to the cost of worldwide shipping.

As anyone with a boat knows, many sorts of marine life can attach themselves to a hull below the waterline (right: barnacles on a ship's hull). On a large ship, the weight of such hitchhikers—everything from algae to barnacles to small colonies of coral—can weigh as much as 10 tons, says marine ecologist Susan Williams of the University of California, Davis, Bodega Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay. The costs of these hull-fouling stowaways are substantial: According to one study, the U.S. shipping industry spends more than $36 billion each year in added fuel costs to overcome the drag induced by clinging marine life or for anti-fouling paint that prevents that life from hitching a ride in the first place. And that figure doesn’t include the cost

High pressure water blasting removes marine growth, old paint and corrosion from hull

to regularly scrape a hull smooth, which costs approximately $4.50 for every square foot of hull surface.

In the future, those costs could rise substantially, says Williams. In lab tests for which seawater was warmed 3.5°C above today’s average—a scenario that represents water temperatures expected in the year 2100—organisms in a typical community of hull-clinging creatures grew twice as fast as they do under today’s conditions. They not only grow more quickly in the warmer water but also grew to form thicker layers.

As a result, maintenance will likely be required more often in the future, boosting operational costs even further. In fact, recent warming may already have increased the need for routine hull scraping, says Williams. Ten years ago, boat owners in the marina where she lives typically scraped their boats only once every 3 months. Now, she notes, they need to perform such maintenance on a monthly basis.

See the complete coverage of the 2011 AAAS annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Source:
Science Magazine,"A Warming World Could Add Billions to Shipping Costs ",accessed February 21, 2011