Saturday, February 9, 2019


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Failure
Everyone Falls Sometimes

For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and arouse his anger by what your hands have made.” Deuteronomy 31:29
The Torah reading for this week is Vayelech, which means “and he went,” from Deuteronomy 31:1–30, and the Haftorah is from Hosea 14:2–10 and Micah 7:18–20.
As Moses’ life came to an end, he gave his last speech.
As part of his final remarks, Moses told the Israelites that, inevitably, they would rebel against God.
He said, “For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. In days to come, disaster will fall on you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD . . .”
Now, if not for the fact that Moses was the greatest leader to ever live, I would have thought that his choice of words leaves much to be desired.
How is telling the people that they were doomed to fail empowering? How was that encouraging?
One can even argue that by placing the idea in their minds, Moses had set the people up for failure when they might have otherwise succeeded.
Indeed, this part of Scripture can seem quite disturbing.
Israel was told without a doubt that they would anger God and be punished. It seems unjust that they might have been given a task doomed to fail.
However, I believe the following perspective can shed some light on what is intended to be a loving, caring, and important message on the eve of Moses’ death.
Think of a baby who is learning to walk. The parent knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the toddler will fall. Not once, not twice, but many times over.
The baby will fall and fail time and again until eventually he or she can take a few small steps at a time. Ultimately, after much practice and effort, the baby will walk on his or her own.
A parent would never suggest that the child never try to walk, even though he or she may sustain some bruises along the way.
If the baby could understand, the parent would say, “Don’t worry. You will fall, you will fail, but ultimately, you will learn to walk.”
Once that child learns how to walk, he or she will be able to
skip, jump, climb, hike, and go all sorts of places. Learning to walk involves some failure, but it is well worth it.
In the same way, Moses was telling the fledgling nation of Israel that they, too, needed to learn how to walk. 
Moses had led and carried them until now, but the time had come for them to walk on their own.
Moses empowered them by acknowledging the pitfalls that they would stumble into, but also reassured them that it was all part of the process.
Failure was part of success. Moses encouraged Israel not to give up when they fall down, and neither should we.
With prayers for shalom, peace.

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
Founder and President

Devotional@HolyLandMoments.org
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Saturday, January 26, 2019

- How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built?

How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built?
By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor

The pyramids of Giza were built using techniques that took centuries to develop.

No cameras were around thousands of years ago when the ancient Egyptians built the three pyramids of Giza, for each of three pharaohs Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.
And so scientists have had to piece together clues as to how these towering monuments were constructed.
Over the past two decades, a series of new discoveries and studies allowed researchers to paint a clearer picture of those feats.

Giza pyramids

The first, and largest, pyramid at Giza was built by the pharaoh Khufu (reign started around 2551 B.C.).
His pyramid, which today stands 455 feet (138 meters) tall, is known as the "Great Pyramid" and was considered to be a wonder of the world by ancient writers.
The pyramid of Khafre (reign started around 2520 B.C.) was only slightly smaller than Khufu's but stood on higher ground.
Many scholars believe that the Sphinx monument, which lies near Khafre's pyramid, was built by Khafre, and that the face of the Sphinx was modeled after him.
The third pharaoh to build a pyramid at Giza was Menkaure (reign started around 2490 B.C.), who opted for a smaller pyramid that stood 215 feet (65 m) high.
Over the past two decades, researchers have made a number of discoveries related to the pyramids, including a town built near the pyramid of Menkaure, a study showing how water can make blocks easier to move and a papyrus found by the Red Sea.  
These have allowed researchers to gain a better understanding of how the Giza pyramids were built.
The new finds add to older knowledge gained over the last two centuries.

Developing pyramid-building techniques

The techniques used to build the Giza pyramids were developed over a period of centuries, with all of the problems and setbacks that any modern-day scientist or engineer would face.
Pyramids originated from simple rectangular "mastaba" tombs that were being constructed in Egypt over 5,000 years ago, according to finds made by archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie.
A major advance occurred during the reign of the pharaoh Djoser (reign started around 2630 B.C).
His mastaba tomb at Saqqara started off as a simple rectangular tomb before being developed into a six-layered step pyramid with underground tunnels and chambers.
Another leap in pyramid-building techniques came during the reign of the pharaoh Snefru (reign started around 2575 B.C.) who built at least three pyramids.
Rather than constructing step pyramids, Snefru's architects developed methods to design smooth-faced, true pyramids.
It appears that Snefru's architects ran into trouble.
One of the pyramids he constructed at the site of Dahshur is known today as the "bent pyramid" because the angle of the pyramid changes partway up, giving the structure a bent appearance. Scholars generally regard the bent angle as being the result of a design flaw.
Snefru's architects would correct the flaw; a second pyramid at Dahshur, known today as the "red pyramid" — so named after the color of its stones — has a constant angle, making it a true pyramid.
Snefru's son, Khufu, would use the lessons from his father and earlier predecessors to construct the "Great Pyramid," the largest pyramid in the world.

Planning the pyramids

The pharaohs appointed a high-ranking official to oversee pyramid construction.
In 2010, a team of archaeologists discovered papyri dating to the reign of Khufu at the site of Wadi al-on the Red Sea.
Text on the papyri stated that in the 27th year of Khufu's reign, the pharaoh's half-brother, Ankhaf, was the vizier (highest official to serve the king in ancient Egypt) and "chief for all the works of the king," archaeologists Pierre Tallet and Gregory Marouard wrote in the journal Near Eastern Archaeology.
While the papyri said that Ankhaf was in charge during the pharaoh's 27th year, many scholars believe it's possible that another person, possibly the vizier Hemiunu, was in charge of pyramid building during the earlier part of Khufu's reign. 
Researchers are working to understand the sophisticated planning that would have been involved in pyramid building, which required constructing not just the pyramids, but also the temples, boat pits and cemeteries located near the enormous structures.
Researchers have noted that the Egyptians had the ability to align structures to true north very precisely, something that may have helped in planning the pyramids.
Glen Dash, an engineer who studies the pyramids at Giza as part of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), noted that Khufu's pyramid is aligned to true north within one-tenth of a degree.
How the ancient Egyptians did this is not fully clear.
In a report published recently in an AERA newsletter, Dash wrote that a circumpolar star like Polaris and lines of rope were likely used as part of the method.

Supplies and food

Over the past few years archaeologists with AERA have been excavating and studying a port at Giza that would have been used to bring in supplies, food and people.
The papyri found at Wadi al-Jarf allude to the importance of Giza's ports, saying that limestone blocks, used in the outer casing of the pyramid, were shipped from quarries to the pyramid sites within a few days using boat transport.
The port that AERA archaeologists found is located by a town built near Menkaure's pyramid.
This town had sizable homes for high officials, a barracks complex that likely held troops and buildings where large numbers of clay seals (used in record keeping) were found.
The ordinary workers likely slept in simple dwellings near the pyramid site.  
Estimates given by various archaeologists for the size of the workforce at Giza tend to hover around 10,000 people for all three pyramids. These people were well-fed; in a study published in 2013, Richard Redding, the chief research officer at AERA, and colleagues found that enough cattle, sheep and goats were slaughtered every day to produce 4,000 pounds of meat, on average, to feed the pyramid builders.
The finding was detailed in the book "Proceedings of the 10th Meeting of the ICAZ Working Group 'Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas'" (Peeters Publishing, 2013).
Redding used the animal bone remains found at Giza, and the nutritional requirements for a person doing hard labor, to make the discovery.
Redding also found that animals were brought in from sites on the Nile Delta and kept in a corral until they were slaughtered and fed to the workers.
The workers' meat-rich diet may have been an inducement for people to work on the pyramids, Redding said. "They probably got a much better diet than they got in their village," Redding told Live Science in 2013.

Quarrying the blocks

Many of the stones used in Khufu's pyramid are from a horseshoe-shaped quarry located just south of the pyramid, said Mark Lehner, an Egyptologist who leads AERA, and engineer David Goodman.
They published their finds back in 1985 in the journal Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts.
Construction workers would have used blocks from a quarry located south-southeast of Menkaure's pyramid to build that pyramid, the researchers said.
However, it is unclear which quarry was used for Khafre's pyramid.
When nearly complete, each of the Giza pyramids was furnished with a smooth outer casing made of limestone.
Little of this outer casing remains today, having been reused for other building projects in Egypt over the millennia.
The papyri found at Wadi al-Jarf said that the limestone used in the casing is from a quarry located at Turah, near modern-day Cairo, and was shipped to Giza by boat along the Nile River and a series of canals.
One boat trip took four days, the papyri said.

Moving the blocks

To move the stones overland, the Egyptians would have used large sledges that could be pushed or pulled by gangs of workers.
The sand in front of the sledge was likely dampened with water, something that reduced friction, making it easier to move the sledge, a team of physicists from the University of Amsterdam found in a study published in 2014 in the journal Physical Review Letters.
"It turns out that wetting Egyptian desert sand can reduce the friction by quite a bit, which implies you need only half of the people to pull a sledge on wet sand, compared to dry sand," Daniel Bonn, a physics professor at the University of Amsterdam and lead author of that study, told Live Science in 2014.
The scientists said scenes in ancient Egyptian artwork show water being poured in front of sledges.  
Most Egyptologists agree that when the stones arrived at the pyramids, a system of ramps was used to haul the stones up.
However, Egyptologists are uncertain how these ramps were designed. Little evidence of the ramps survives, but several hypothetical designs have been proposed over the last few decades.
New data may come from the Scan Pyramids Mission, an initiative being undertaken by researchers at three different universities, the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
This project's scientists are in the process of scanning and reconstructing the Giza pyramids using a variety of technologies.
In addition to finding out more about the construction of the pyramids, the project may also reveal if there are any undiscovered chambers within the structures.
Owen Jarus writes about archaeology and all things about humans' past for Live Science. Owen has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Toronto and a journalism degree from Ryerson University. He enjoys reading about new research and is always looking for a new historical tale.


http://puricarefiles.blogspot.com/2017/11/pyramids-of-giza-how-were-egyptian.html



Monday, November 13, 2017

PECO TAKEOVER - A CONSUMERS’ group is planning a move akin to a corporate takeover of Panay Electric Co. (PECO), the sole power distributor in Iloilo City, by converting refunds to consumers into company stocks.

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PECO 
TAKEOVER
Consumers’ group mulls PECO ‘takeover’
By admin
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November 13, 2017
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A CONSUMERS’ group is planning a move akin to a corporate takeover of Panay Electric Co. (PECO), the sole power distributor in Iloilo City, by converting refunds to consumers into company stocks.
The group, which is still in process of being organized, told The Daily Guardian that their move is in reaction to PECO’s application to renew its congressional franchise for another 25 years.
TDG learned that City Councilor R Leone Gerochi, committee on public utilities chair, is planning on Nov 14, 2017 to file a resolution which will ask his colleagues to appoint an official representative to the hearing on PECO’s franchise renewal to be conducted by the House Committee on Legislative Franchises on Nov 22.
House Bill 6023, which seeks the renewal of PECO’s franchise by another 25 years, was filed by Rep. Xavier Jesus D. Romualdo in July 2017.
Also, Gerochi will also file another resolution asking the council’s support to the move to convert PECO refunds to its 54,000 consumers into company stocks which will allow consumers to partly own the distribution utility.
The refund is mandated by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) through an order dated June 9, 2006 and later modified by another order issued on Nov 16, 2009.
The June 2006 order directed PECO to refund consumers more or less P2.89 billion in over-recoveries or overcharges in a span of nine years, from February 1996 to July 2005.
But the refundable amount was lowered to P631 million in Nov 2009 as the original figures included fuel bills charged by PECO’s power supplier.
Part of the P631-million refund is P3.12 million for pilferage over-recovery which PECO should return to its consumers as mandated by Section 12 of Republic Act 7832 of 1994 (Anti-Pilferage Law).
In a modified order dated Nov 19, 2009 signed by ERC chairperson Zenaida G. Cruz-Ducut, the regulatory body emphasized that “the Commission maintains its position that pilferage recoveries should be deducted from the power cost of PECO and returned to consumers by reflecting the amount in its monthly bills.”
The refund is a result of the case filed by the Freedom from Debt Coalition represented by its legal counsel Romeo P. Gerochi.
The Iloilo City consumers’ group said they will also file a petition with the ERC seeking an audit of PECO’s refund and at the same time seek the conversion of the remaining amount into stock options for consumers.
A top PECO official told TDG that they will wait for the group’s move in the city council and the ERC.
The official said the refund issue has been settled by PECO with ERC and that the distribution firm has implemented the ERC order.
Aside from the consumers’ group, Iloilo City Councilor Joshua Alim has been gathering signatures from consumers in a bid to oppose the renewal of PECO’s franchise citing poor services.

Sunday, November 5, 2017

JUST BE HELD - Casting Crowns - Your world’s NOT falling apart, it’s falling into place! Lift up your hands, lift up your eyes, that is the place that you will find your Lord ready to come to your rescue. He will come into every place of your life, He will hold your heart, and He will never let you go.

Just Be Held

Your World’s NOT Falling Apart, It’s Falling Into Place

Posted by keith.ross 
I have been on a Casting Crowns marathon lately, and I absolutely love their new album “Thrive”, which I put a note about in my last post as well (and will be writing at least one more specifically about a song from their album).

The song that has really been on my heart a lot lately is this song called“Just Be Held,” and it really has some amazing lyrics.
It talks about being in situations where you are relied upon for strength, and you find yourself totally helpless for not only you, but the person who is relying on you because life’s circumstances have just blindsided you.
I don’t think I am exaggerating much at all when I say this is how I feel just about every day!
I write a lot about how the Lord encourages me, and how He is my voice in the storm, throughout my posts on this site.
So I am not going to speak to any specific situation but more of a general perspective and understanding that I have come to in regards to this. 
It is the reason why this song spoke so truly to my heart, and what lead me to write a post about it.
I am basically going to walk you through the lyrics from this song line by line below, and I will post my “commentary,” if you will, below it. 
I will do the actual lyrics in bold and underlined, and my notes in normal type

Lyrics for “Just Be Held” by Casting Crowns from their website. 

Hold it all together
Everybody needs you strong
But life hits you out of nowhere
And barely leaves you holding on
I talk to people often about this subject, and many times I too feel, these same feelings “I wish I were stronger.” 
We feel like there are so many people relying on our strength, and we ultimately end up trying to take the reigns of our own lives.
This is totally backward from what the bible teaches though.
I will quote one of many times Paul speaks of this: “for when I am weak, then am I strong.” – 2 Corinthians 12:10 NASB
God, out of His lovingkindness for us, out of His Fatherly compassion must help you take your eyes off of yourself, and redirect them to the One Who “by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams].” – Ephesians 3:20 AMP
It is in faithfulness that He has afflicted you (Psalms 119:75), this faithful affliction is the life hitting you out of nowhere and barely leaving you holding on.”
And when you’re tired of fighting
Chained by your control
Theres freedom in surrender
Lay it down and let it go
The point of the storm, the point of you coming to the place of feeling that your world is falling apart, is to bring you to the end of your self.
God will do nothing for you, nor will He deliver you, until you completely lay it all down and let it go.
Do you see how they actually use the words chained by your control?”
Have you ever thought of your trying to take control of everything is actually a destructive behavior that is a result of the fall in Genesis 3?
When Adam decided to be independent by choosing his own will over God’s (Who’s entire purpose for mankind was to be that which He expressed His life and glory through, and that we might become His bride Whom He could have a reciprocal loving relationship with), he chose to separate himself from being dependent on God, which is the way to Eternal Life.
The being chained by your control is the fallen nature that is now in your DNA, passed down from the seed of Adam, and it cannot be helped, healed, or recovered. 
It must be crucified, that is the only way to live, for Jesus Himself said “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 10:39 ESV
So when you’re on your knees and answers seem so far away
You’re not alone, stop holding on and just be held
Your world’s not falling apart, its falling into place
I’m on the throne, stop holding on and just be held

Just be held, just be held
It is most inevitable, and most profitable, that we end up on our knees.
We are not capable of surrendering to God without a complete loss of everything in which we would put our faith in otherwise.
God must do away with all that is not of Him. He will allow things in life to hit you out of nowhere, a storm will come, the perfect storm, and “when you’re on your knees and answers seems so far away” that is when the Lord will remove the veil.
Once all has been moved out of the way, and you know you are in a place that only God can save you, that is when you will hear Him whisper “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9a ESV. 
It is only in this place, when you are taking the position of winning through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is on your knees: “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” – Ephesians 3:14 KJV, that you will be able to say with Paul:
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9b ESV
Holy crap! Is it possible that these lyrics are true?
Have you ever looked at it as your world’s NOT falling apart, it’s falling into place?
Literally, when you feel things are at their worst that is because your world, your life, is all actually falling into place!
In the light of this revelation focus on the last two lines of the previous verse now:
“I’m on the throne, stop holding on and just be held, just be held, just be held”
Do you realize your Father is the King of kings, Lord of lords, The Alpha and The Omega, The Beginning and The End, the God of Fire, Lord of Hosts, Creator of Universes & new men, our Resurrected Savior, The Most High, whose dominion is without end and whose heart burns in love for His children.
Your Father, the King, is on the throne, and He simply wants you to climb up in His lap and just be held by Him.
Are we not the most favored of all of creation? My heart sings “Abba Father!
Abba definition from “Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names”: Abba (ab’-bah) = Father (denotes childlike intimacy and trust. A title of great respect.)
If your eyes are on the storm
You’ll wonder if I love you still
But if your eyes are on the cross
You’ll know I always have and I always will
If all you are looking at is the storm it will utterly destroy you. You have no power over the storm apart from Christ, but when you look to Him, and trust Him in the midst of your trial then He will deliver you and be glorified in doing so! 
The result of the Lord calming the sea of your soul is a perfect peacefulness and a blessedness beyond anything words can describe.
“And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still (muzzled)! And the wind ceased ( sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating) and there was [immediately] a great calm ( a perfect peacefulness).” – Mark 4:39 AMP
It is our Lord who is the author and perfecter of our faith, keep your eyes on the cross and He will make a way.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:2 KJV
And not a tear is wasted
In time, you’ll understand
I’m painting beauty with the ashes
Your life is in My hands
My mother tells me often of a dream she had in which she was crying, and there was an angel with a bottle catching her tears.
It was as if every one of those tears was a prayer, a sweet savor and aroma going up to our Lord, who constantly intercedes on her behalf, on our behalf.
He is painting a picture of beauty with the remains of your life that has been left utterly desolate by the situations that brought you to your knees.
This picture is his “Poiema” that I wrote about in my post I believe the Lord sang us into existence,” this Poiema is the painting, the song of the new life, the new creature, the whole new creation that is in Christ Jesus.
“Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP
The verse above is the verse that saved my life by the way, this is the verse that the Lord first used to show me that I was new, and I have never been the same since. That story is at least a whole post in itself, so keep an eye out for it :-).
Lift your hands, lift your eyes
In the storm is where you’ll find Me
And where you are, Ill hold your heart
I’ll hold your heart
Come to Me, find your rest
In the arms of the God who won’t let go
Next time you are having a bad day, week, year, or heck you can’t remember the last time you have had a good day (I’ve been there), just remember your world’s NOT falling apart, it’s falling into place!
Lift up your hands, lift up your eyes, that is the place that you will find your Lord ready to come to your rescue.
He will come into every place of your life, He will hold your heart, and He will never let you go.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy- laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]” – Matthew 11:28 – AMP
Amen, and be blessed as you watch the lyric video for Casting Crown’s “Just Be Held.”