#and also fleeing to a place with 99% of the same problems but less likely to harm me personally seems extremely stupid

[angremlin]

Like what am I supposed to do. Lol.

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Beaked whales have a killer whale problem.

More formidable whales, of the sperm or pilot variety, have the size and muscle to flee or defend against a killer whale, an ocean superpredator. Smaller prey, like dolphins, can find safety by swimming in large pods. Certain toothed whales even communicate in pitches killer whales can’t hear.

But elephant-sized beaked whales, named for their pointy snouts, have none of these advantages. These extreme divers swim in small groups, are too slow to outswim a killer whale, and rely on audible clicks to echolocate food deep in the ocean. Killer whales (Orcinus orca) should be able to hear them hunting below and easily pick them off as they ascend.

But beaked whales have evolved a sneaky trick.

An unusual, highly synchronized style of diving helps them silently slip past killer whales when surfacing to breathe, researchers describe February 6 in Scientific Reports. Predation from killer whales has shaped that strange behavior, the scientists say, and also might explain why naval sonar exercises, which can sound like predators to beaked whales, cause mass beaching events (SN: 3/25/11).

“Beaked whales are some of the most mysterious mammals in the world,” says Natacha Aguilar de Soto, a marine biologist at the University of La Laguna in the Canary Islands, Spain. This group of 22 whale species can dive deeper than any mammal, sometimes descending more than 2,000 meters to noisily hunt small fish and squid using echolocation for up to 2½ hours before surfacing.

Previous research has hinted that, when beaked whales return from the deep, they don’t come straight up for air like other whales. Instead, they ascend at a gradual angle, surfacing far from where they dove. “It’s highly unusual for whales to do this,” Aguilar de Soto says. She and her colleagues wondered whether it could help beaked whales slip past predators.

The team suction-cupped sensors that tracked depth, orientation and sound onto 14 Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) and 12 Cuvier’s (Ziphius cavirostris) off the coasts of Spain, Portugal and Italy to better understand diving behavior in these groups. Instead of diving for food whenever an individual whale got hungry, tagged whales in the same group dove together 99 percent of the time.

On their way down, the whales swam in a tight group, remaining totally silent. But once they reached about 450 meters deep, they split up, loudly chirping to echolocate prey hundreds of meters from other group members.

Killer whales cannot hunt mammals this deep. But Aguilar de Soto says that the predators can eavesdrop on beaked whales while they hunt, and could hover above, waiting for them to ascend.

But when the whales finished foraging, they regrouped and began their silent, meandering ascent back to the surface, traveling as far as a kilometer from where they dove.

“That’s the trick to give the skip to killer whales,” Aguilar de Soto says.

The researchers estimate that killer whales, or orcas, can visually explore only 1.2 percent of the potential surfacing area of these beaked whales. Such behavior allows diving groups, which often include young beaked whales, to stay together while also evading detection by predators.

But the unusual diving does have downsides. The beaked whales’ slow and silent ascent cuts foraging time by 35 percent, the study estimates, compared with whales that swim straight up.

“This study is a great achievement; it’s really hard to get good data on these whales,” says Nicola Quick, a behavioral ecologist at Duke University. The work supports the idea that predation has shaped this unusual diving behavior, although the gradual ascent also could be important for avoiding decompression sickness, she says.

Aguilar de Soto says the study helps to explain why beaked whales react so strongly to sonar. Having evolved in a “soundscape of fear,” she says, beaked whales may be hypersensitive to the sounds of predators. Sonar might hijack this response and drive disoriented and scared whales to swim until they’re beached.

While we can’t change this ingrained whale behavior, Aguilar de Soto says, “we can try to push governments to restrict these exercises to places where they’ll have less of an impact.”

[commiedervish]

Masterpost on the United States of America

[posted by /u/user_name_101ofcl on /r/communism]

This master post is divided into 2 parts:

The failure of the USA to protect its citizens

A list of US imperialism and the crimes they have committed

The Failure of USA to protect its citizens and the crimes committed in her own country

The USA is the largest and most powerful capitalist country to have ever existed. It has had the pleasure of

Being the most powerful country in its continent for about 150 years

Has the most favourable terrain imaginable. With fertile river valleys covering its land and all of its borders surrounded by forests, a large desert or oceans, practically making an invasion almost impossible.

Has plentiful resources like iron, coal and oil.

And lastly, a large amount of immigration. So a lack of a labour force won't ever be a problem

With such favourable material conditions, if we want to prove that capitalism works, the USA should be the best example of it. Let's look at how the US population is doing.

Worker rights and public services in the USA

The US has always repressed its workers. The federal minimum wage (7.25 $) is so low it barely allows people who are paid in it to live. The workers can not ask for a better wage, because they will get fired if they do.

The US has the least powerful unions and the workers stand alone against the capitalists. Basic things like paid maternity leave are optional and up to the employer. The US used to imprison and assassinate Union leaders so they wouldn't spread a pro worker message.

Privatisation is also a major thing in the US. The railways have always been private and this has resulted to them underperforming in speed, cost and affordability. In countries where it is nationalised, like China, the railways are extremely efficient.

The healthcare system in the US is private and this, according to Harvard, results in 45 thousand preventable deaths each year.

An other thing that is privatized, at least partly, is the prison system. Private prisons cost less to the government, about 17 $ less per prisoner per day but have more violence, worse facilities and are less likely to give parole than government ran prisons.

Poverty in the USA (statistics)

41 million Americans go hungry, including 13 million children and 5.4 millions seniors

More than 1 in 5 children in America (21.8%) are living under the official poverty line. Half of all children will be on food stamps before they turn 20, including 9 out of 10 black American children

Only 48% of Americans can handle a $400 emergency

For every 22 empty homes, there is 1 homeless person

Democracy in the USA

The USA prides itself in being the most democratic country, "the leader of the free world" but in reality the citizens of the USA have no real say on what their government does. The United States government only serves the interests of the bourgeoisie.

Don't believe me? Well, a recent report shows that about half of Congress and two thirds of the Senate are millionaires.

The elections are also completely undemocratic. The power of political lobbying in the USA is unprecedented. Both parties rely on the support of the bourgeoisie to win.

We shouldn't also forget the extreme gerrymandering that has been happening lately by both parties. Voting districts have been purposely redrawn across the country so the parties can keep their seats.

Now let's talk about voter suppression. The US has suppressed the vote of minorities since its creation. When the USA was created, only white male protestant land owners were allowed to vote. Gradually the USA was forced by civil rights activists to allow minorities and women to vote, but this doesn't mean that voter suppression doesn't exist. To this day incidents of voter suppression happen in states like Texas, south Carolina and Georgia. They specifically target black Americans, to stop them from voting.

An other way the US tries to stop black Americans from voting is felony disenfranchisement. Basically in most of the US, if you commit a felony, you are no longer allowed to vote (end in some states even if you get out of prison). This targets black and hispanic people in more than a few ways. They commit more crime than usual but they also get arrested more often than white people for the same crime.

The awful treatment of minorities in the USA

The US has historically oppressed every minority in its territory. From blacks to native Americans, from Latino communities to asians.

As I said above, only white men where allowed to vote when the US was created. In fact, not only where black people not allowed to vote, but they were slaves and where worth "three fifths of a white person". They were also not considered citizens despite them being born in the US.

When slavery was abolished the oppression continued. Segregation was the official policy of most states. They claimed that it was a policy of "separate but equal" but in reality it was far from that. White people had access to better schools, healthcare, housing and transportation.

Today although segregation being officially over, black people still face discrimination and disadvantages in schooling, police (we will get to that in a minute), healthcare, voting (as I showed you above), housing, and many other fields. Let's also not forget that the US has not paid ANY sort of reparations to black Americans. This and the effects of the institutionalized discrimination has left a unimaginable difference in the average wages and living standards of black Americans.

The median net worth of whites remains nearly 10 times the size of blacks. Nearly 1 in 5 black families have zero or negative net worth — twice the rate of white families.

(This even comes from a liberal source)

Let's also not forget the awful conditions in native reservations, with some lacking safe drinking water and some suffering from overcrowding. There is also a lack of wifi on a lot of these places.

And finally, the US literally has literal concentration camps in the border to place illegal migrants and their children, even though the illegal immigrants are fleeing violence and poverty the US caused in Central America (we will get to that)

Police brutality

Police brutality in the US has always been an issue. The main target are black people, worker rights activists, Muslims (especially after 9/11) latinos and some LGBTQ rights activists.

Police killed 1,147 people in 2017. Black people were 25% of those killed despite being only 13% of the population.

Black people are 25% more likely to be killed by police than white people

21% of black victims were completely unarmed

(This doesn't account for the people that were armed but didn't do anything wrong and cooperated with the police)

In 99% of cases the police officer was not convicted of a crime

A list of US imperialism and the crimes they have committed

This will be a list of US interventions from 1946 to 2019, this proves that the US remains an imperialist power and the primary threat to democracy

1 ) The US openly backs Greek nationalists in the Greek civil war against the communists, despite the communists having by far more support(1946)

2 ) The US helps with the creation of Israel(1948-1949)

3 ) The US helped in the establishment of the FRG (West Germany)

In 1957, 77% of the ministry's senior officials were former Nazis, which, according to the study, was a higher proportion that during Hitler's Third Reich government, which existed from 1933 to 1945.

A report released late last year found that between 1949 and 1970, 54% of Interior Ministry staffers were former Nazi Party members, and that 8% of them had served in the Nazi Interior Ministry, which at one point was run by SS chief Heinrich Himmler.

Also when the Stalin notes came, calling for a neutral unified Germany with elections , the US refused

4) CIA directs war against Huk Rebellion in the Philippines (1948-54)

5) Independence rebellion crushed in Ponce, Puerto Rico (1950)

6) The US, after expelling a workers government in South Korea, establishes a fascist dictatorship and helps it fight the communists (1951-53)

7) CIA overthrows democracy in Iran, installs Shah. (1953)

8) The CIA directs a coup in Guatemala after the democratically elected government nationalised fruit land from cooperations that were exploitating the Guatemalan people(1954)

9) The Suez crisis in Egypt (1956)

10) Army & Marine occupation against rebels in Lebanon (1958)

11) Fought South Vietnam revolt & North Vietnam, 1 million killed, atomic bomb threats in 1968 and 69 (1960-75)

12) CIA-directed Bay of Pigs exile invasion fails in Cuba (1961)

13) Caused an international crisis over missiles in Cuba while they had similar ones on Turkey (1962)

14) CIA organizes coup in Iraq that killed the president, brings Ba’ath Party to power, Saddam Hussein as secret service head (1963)

15) The terror to black American communities and the black Panthers massively increased. Assassinations left and right, including M.L.K (1963-66)

16) People in Panama shot for urging canal’s return (1964)

17) 3 million dead in a CIA backed coup in Indonesia (1965)

18) CIA backed coup in Greece against democratically elected leftist (1967-73)

19) Cia backed dictator, up to 2 million killed in decade of bombing, starvation, political chaos (1969-75)

20) US directs Iranian marine invasion in Oman (1970)

21) US directs South Vietnamese invasion in Laos,“carpet-bombs” countryside around Ho Chi Minh Trail (1971-73)

22) Democratic elected leftist president in Chile replaced with a fascist US backed regime (1973)

23) Telling Turkey to invade Cyprus so they can't join the Warsaw pact(1974)

24) Assists South African-backed UNITA rebels in Angola (1976-92)

25) Iran, raid to rescue embassy hostages, 8 troops die in helicopter-plane crash, bombing aborted. Soviets warned not to get involved in revolution. (1980)

26) The US helped Islamic extremists against socialist Afghan government(1981-1989)

27) CIA directs exile (Contra) invasions, plants harbor mines against Sandinista revolutionary gov’t. (1981-90)

28) Lebanon, Marines expel PLO and back far-right Phalangists, Navy bombs and shells Muslim rebels, Syrian forces (1983)

29) Invasion topples 4-year leftist revolutionary gov’t in Grenada (1984)

30) Honduras, Maneuvers help build bases near Nicaragua borders (1985)

31) Air strikes to topple Qaddafi gov’t in Libya (1986)

32) Army assists raids on cocaine region in Bolivia (1986)

33) U.S. intervenes on side of Iraq in the Iraq - Iran war (that Iraq started by the way), defending reflagged tankers & downing civilian jet (1987-88)

34) Panama, Noriega gov’t ousted by 27,000 soldiers,2000+ killed. Canal Zone & bases returned in 1999 (1989-99)

35) Iraq countered after invading Kuwait. 540,000 troops stationed also in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Israel. (1991)

36) No fly zones and sanctions on Iraq (1991-2003)

37) Intervention in Croatia(1992-94)

38) Rigging of Russian elections so the communists would not win (1993)

39) No-fly zone in civil war; downed jets, bombed Serbs (1995)

40) Zaire, Troops at Rwandan Hutu refugee camps in the area where Congo revolution began. (1996-97)

41) Heavy NATO air strikes after Serbia declines to withdraw from Kosovo. NATO occupation of Kosovo. (1999)

42) The US invades Afghanistan (2001-now)

43) Yemen, Drone missile attack on Al Qaeda, including US citizen (2002)

44) The war on Iraq, Saddam Hussein regime toppled in Baghdad. 250,000+ U.S. personnel participate in invasion. US & UK forces battle Sunni & Shi’a insurgencies. 160,000+ troops & many private contractors stationed on bases (2003-11)

45) Haiti, Marines & Army land after right-wing rebels oust elected President Aristide, U.S. forces him into exile (2003-04)

46) Pakistan, CIA drones, air strikes, Special Forces raids on alleged Al Qaeda & Taliban refuge villages kill multiple civilians. Drone attacks on Pakistani Mehsud network (2005-now)

47) Libya, NATO coordinates air strikes and missile attacks vs. Qaddafi government during uprising by rebel army (2011)

48)Air strikes & Special Forces intervene vs. Islamic State insurgents, training other Syrian rebels, bomb alleged Syrian gov’t chemical arms sites (2014-now)

49) Coup in Bolivia against a democratically elected president, replaced with a religious fascist that also hates indigenous people (2019)

50) Meeting with and funding the Hong Kong protestors (2019-now)

51) The killing of an Iranian general (now)

The photo I used - http://imgur.com/gallery/HvyTkEh

List of US atrocities: https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md

Sources

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/

https://www.rollcall.com/news/hawkings/congress-richer-ever-mostly-top

https://kairoscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Poverty-Fact-Sheet-Feb-2015-final.pdf

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/01/09/most-lawmakers-are-millionaires

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/court-north-carolina-voter-id-law-targeted-black-voters/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/19/georgia-governor-race-voter-suppression-brian-kemp

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/24/us/ice-kids-detention-invs/index.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/28/black-and-hispanic-families-are-making-more-money-but-they-still-lag-far-behind-whites/%3foutputType=amp

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Police-Brutality-in-the-United-States-2064580

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org

https://sites.evergreen.edu/zoltan/wp-content/uploads/sites/358/2019/11/InterventionsList2019.pdf

[The rest of the sources were not included in this post due to the character limit. However, they can be seen in the original post on reddit.]

[nationaldvam]

In the U.S., there are more than 10 million people who are abused by their intimate partners annually. A majority of domestic violence victims—between 94 and 99 percent—have also experienced economic abuse. This can include employment-related abuse, where a survivor is prevented from getting or keeping a job; coerced debt, where a survivor is saddled with bills; or other activities that prevent a person from accessing funds.

One particularly difficult challenge many domestic violence survivors face is utility debt. “The utility company may try to hold a survivor responsible for delinquent utility bills on an account managed by the abuser,” according to the National Consumer Law Center. “In addition, a survivor who has any pre-existing utility debt may find it hard to get new service.”

Over the years there have been multiple changes in federal and state laws to respond to the realities of domestic violence and to ensure that policies and programs do not make conditions worse for survivors, or create unintended barriers to accessing critical assistance. However, many of these efforts have been less than effective due to a lack of awareness and a weak enforcement process.

In 2004, Pennsylvania adopted the Responsible Utility Customer Protection Act, which allowed utility companies to collect debt from any adult household member where service was provided. This caused significant concern among domestic violence advocates because victims of abuse may be held responsible for debt accrued by their abuser—further limiting their ability to flee the home. In recognition of this concern, the act initially included an exemption for persons with a valid Protection from Abuse order. Pennsylvania expanded the exemption in 2014 to include those who have a “court order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction in this Commonwealth, which provides clear evidence of domestic violence.”

This exemption allows victims of domestic violence to escape liability for utility debt accrued in someone else’s name. If debt was in the survivor’s name, the act allows the survivor to have access to additional and/or longer payment arrangements. Despite the exemption, there are many people who aren’t receiving the protections they should receive.

The Utilities Pilot Project

In Pennsylvania, domestic violence survivors are often not afforded the protections they are entitled to under the Responsible Utility Customer Protection Act because survivors and domestic violence advocates are often unaware of the law and its provisions. Likewise, utility companies often lack clear policies or screening procedures to implement the domestic violence exemptions found in the law. As a result, front-line utility employees who interact with survivors are often not informed about the special domestic violence protections, and fail to screen a customer for eligibility.

Even if a survivor self-identifies to a utility employee—and attempts to access the special protections— they are often met with confusion from utility company employees who do not understand the relevance of a survivor’s victimization to the utility issue at hand.

Elizabeth Marx, supervising attorney for the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project (PULP), knew about the act’s uneven enforcement before she began working at PULP. Marx previously served as an attorney at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV), and before that, she worked for many years in direct services as a domestic violence advocate. Through this work, Marx saw how utility issues often prevented survivors from starting over. She sees utility access as fundamental to a fresh start for survivors. “You can’t successfully set up independent housing with utility problems. Survivors often leave not just with nothing, but less than nothing,” she says.

Marx’s experiences at PCADV and PULP helped her envision a solution to the problem of uneven access to utility-related protections for survivors. In late 2015, she and her colleagues at PULP conceptualized and implemented a pilot project that involves:

Partnering with direct service providers and learning what they and their clients need

Providing recurring training to staff using in-person trainings, flyers, fact sheets, and desk guides

Offering legal assistance to individuals

Being strategic and systemic about looking for opportunities to improve the system for clients

Marx’s background afforded her some personal connections to organizations that focus on domestic violence, as well as a familiarity with the organization’s priorities, and even their language. So, while Marx was able to bring deep, technical knowledge about utility issues to the table, she could also talk with domestic violence advocates in their own language and with recognition of the realities of the work.

PULP partnered with three domestic violence organizations in Northeast Pennsylvania. Marx’s familiarity with domestic violence made her a stronger partner, says Mary Endrusick of the Women’s Resource Center, a pilot partner that provides services to adult and child survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence in Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties in Pennsylvania. There is “a lot you need to understand around the dynamics of domestic violence and how that shapes [a survivors’] decisions.” Where another attorney with utility expertise might have been able to provide good legal advice to clients, Marx’s background allowed her to take the next step.

The pilot program included two components—direct service and systems change.

PULP received referrals from partner agencies and provided their staffs with training and technical assistance. Over three years, and eight in-person trainings, the advocates’ knowledge of utility-related rights significantly improved during the course of the pilot program. For example, PULP handled more than 300 cases for clients referred to them from just three of the more than 50 domestic violence agencies across Pennsylvania. PULP was able to clear and/or defer approximately $80,000 in client debt and helped connect and/or prevented termination of utility services for over 100 clients. In addition, requests for legal assistance dropped over time. When coupled with discussions with partner agencies, this decline provides evidence that advocates are now better equipped to help survivors address some utility issues without attorney intervention.

In addition to addressing individual issues, the pilot program also worked to identify critical systems changes that needed to take place in order to make sure that survivors’ rights were being protected. The three partners that participated in the program are all located within the same territories that a large natural gas and electric distribution company services. That made it easier to spot and raise issues connected to those utilities’ policies and practices. When the natural gas company sought a rate increase, PULP intervened in the proceeding on behalf of its clients and secured critical changes to the company’s policies, including front-line staff training, written procedures for identification and case handling, billing and collections reforms, and enhanced confidentiality, which brought the utility into better alignment with Pennsylvania law. This change likely had a significant impact on the ability of survivors and advocates working on their behalf to resolve issues without attorney assistance. Not only did the pilot help the survivors being served by the pilot partners, it also changed practices for a utility company that serves almost 600,000 residential customers in Pennsylvania.

Through the direct representation of hundreds of clients in active transition, other systemic patterns also emerged. For example, PULP realized that many local housing authorities across the state have adopted practices to deny housing to applicants with existing utility debt—even if that debt was uncollectible or otherwise curable. That lesson led PULP to seek and secure a grant to partner directly with housing authorities to train staff on various protections, including the special rules for victims of domestic violence, and to reform policies that work to prevent transitional populations from accessing affordable housing and, in turn, achieving economic stability.

The pilot program is concluding, but to ensure that new staff members have access to the same materials, PULP has created a desk manual for advocates and anticipates creating a recorded training that agencies could incorporate into their staff trainings. In addition, PULP launched a legal hotline for Pennsylvania (they cover every county except Philadelphia, which is covered by Community Legal Services), which will allow them to continue to serve clients referred by their domestic violence agency partners. PULP is evaluating whether to try to bring the model of intensive training and partnerships to other portions of the state.

Moving into the Gaps and Accelerating the Pace

The rights afforded to low-income persons and vulnerable populations are often marked by diffuse responsibility, the thought that someone else is responsible for taking a specific action, like enforcement or teaching. In that context, gaps in knowledge and enforcement are to be expected. While there is movement to try to coordinate services for low-income persons and vulnerable populations, a related movement is needed on the professional services side—more of us need to step into the gaps between fields and try to find a way toward a common language and a path forward together.

Doing work in the gaps is vital to enforcing the rights of low-income people. It is especially true when those people have additional complicating issues, such as domestic violence. This work continues to require both individual assistance and systemic advocacy—a dual approach that is the hallmark of many legal services programs. It also requires a willingness to work across fields.

There are encouraging signs of shifts, such as at the intersection of health and housing, but to accelerate movement, organizations across the country will need to empower staff members to work across traditional boundaries. Advocates with sector-spanning expertise, when supported by organizations that value their contributions, can help us take large steps forward.

And, of course, for many organizations that work with low-income or vulnerable populations, very little is possible without the support of funders. Funders have a significant leadership opportunity in this area. They can accelerate movement into the gaps by investing in organizations that try to fill the gaps between fields; funding innovative projects at critical intersections; and helping organizations make the often very difficult jump from pilot to established program.

[javaboi]

Statement of Faith

Embrace Weakness.  It’s God’s strength.  In other words, let Jesus meet us where we are.  We don’t go to meet him. He comes to meet us.  Then we grow from that point.  Salvation is 100% grace.  If we do anything (works), then we’re undermining what Christ did 2,000 years ago.  This is the downfall of conservative fundamentalist Christianity.  Those liars have had a stranglehold for far too long and have given Christianity a bad name.  Now is the time for liberal progressives to take back Christianity.

 Of all the religious leaders of Earth, Jesus is the only one who has risen from the dead.  He is God and is the bridge between us and the Father.  He is the only way we can have eternal life in Heaven (John 14:6).  There is nothing we can do by ourselves to be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life with God.  All we can do is accept Jesus' free gift of forgiveness and salvation and depend on that grace until we transition into the next life.  There are two reasons Jesus left Heaven and came to Earth. One is because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden food in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:6), and the other is because God loves us a lot (John 3:16).

 To grow in a relationship with Jesus, ask Him.  He will hear your prayer (Wisdom 1:6).  When you pray, it is not necessary to assume any body position or bow your head or close your eyes or fold your hands or raise your arms.  Simply talk to Him from your heart.  Prayers do not need to be long. In fact, God prefers prayers to be clear and to the point rather than long-winded prayers that drone on and on (James 1:5-8).  The end of a verbal prayer is the beginning of faith.  Let go and let God.  The Holy Spirit helps us pray.  We can pray silently or out loud, with pictures or with words.  In fact, God knows the desires of our heart before we express them (Matthew 6:8).  God chose us (Matthew 22:14, John 15:16, Galatians 1:15, 1 Peter 1:2, 1 Peter 2:9).  The faith that God gives us to believe in Him is a gift.  We cannot muster it ourselves.  A good example for us to follow as a model of intimately interacting with God is shown by children as they and their parents excitedly come to Jesus in Matthew 18:1-5, Matthew 19:13, and Mark 10:13.  Here is another example: A parent and child are walking together. The child has no idea where he is.  Then the parent asks, “Are we lost?”  The child responds, “No.  I’m with you.”  This is how it is with us and God.

 Once a relationship with Jesus has begun, our job is to grow spiritually.  The best way to do this is to pray and read the Bible every day.  Twice a day is even better!  The Bible is not a rule book. It is a love letter.  When we pray, we can talk to God the same way we talk to someone who loves us very much.  Prayer is one percent talking, 99 percent listening, and it should be continuous during the time we are awake.  God knows our hearts all the time (Romans 8:27), so we are already always in a constant state of prayer with him (Ephesians 6:18) whether we like it or not.  There is nothing we can hide from God.  This is not frightening.  It is liberating.  When we begin each day, we can invite God to be the center of everything we think, say, and do throughout the day – even sinful mistakes. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter and helper in this life (Luke 24:49) while he prepares a place for us in the next life (John 14:2-4).

We do not know God's complete plan for our lives because we do not know the mind of God (1 Corinthians 2: 16).  We are bumblers in this life.  We mess things up a lot.  However, our weakness is God’s strength (2 Corinthians 12:9).  God is not vulnerable to our messes.  Even if God has a detailed ‘plan’ for our lives, only he knows all of the details (Proverbs 16:9).  I prefer to imagine God ‘orchestrating situations’ in which His work will come so naturally to us from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we do not realize we are doing God's work until it is done.  This has happened to me many times. Afterwards I realize that I could never have planned that myself.  Then I thank God and go about my day.  I have had a relationship with Jesus for most of my life and every day is a surprise!  God loves surprises.  It is often through life's surprises that some of the most effective spiritual growth takes place.

 Statistics tell us that when we speak aloud, it is usually at the rate of 150-200 words per minute.  We may not realize that we constantly talk privately to ourselves at the approximate rate of 1,300 words per minute. Our thoughts and actions are shaped by this inner voice.  Our mind is constantly in motion. Ongoing prayer is the discipline of practicing God’s presence throughout the day.  As we delight in God’s presence, we naturally develop a habit of praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  This is what it means to continually abide in and walk with Jesus.  The best way to do this is to practice being more like Mary and less like Martha (Luke 10:38-42).

As we grow in our relationship with God, we can explore praise, worship, fellowship with other believers, lay ministry, and community outreach.  Praise and worship are different for different people.  For some people, praise is as simple as thanking God and worship is as simple as loving God.  Like prayer, the Holy Spirit helps us with praise and worship.  We can praise and worship God all throughout the day in all situations, anywhere, anytime (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  When we do lay ministry and community outreach, we should remember what Saint Francis of Assisi said.  “Always proclaim the Gospel, and when necessary, use words.”  People do not care how much we know until they know how much we care.

 Read the Be-Attitudes (Matthew 5:3-12).  As the years go by in this first life, we should be able to see ourselves more and more in these verses.  First, we might say to ourselves, “Oh! That verse describes me!”  Then later, we are able to identify with another verse and then another.  This tells us that, over the past few years, we have been growing spiritually.  After a while, we should be able to identify with most, if not all, of the Be-Attitudes.  This is a wonderful goal for this life.

During this first life, believers routinely fight temptation and guilt.  Temptation comes from the enemy and guilt comes from when we stumble.  However, God is constant. There is nothing we can do to cause God to love us less.  Likewise, there is nothing we can do to cause God to love us more.  When we feel tempted or have problems, praise God.  Praise is an enemy repellent.  Praise also helps us tap into the strength of the Holy Spirit better.  The devil flees when we praise God because he cannot stand to be around praise.  When we have problems in this life, we can allow ourselves to feel a sense of anticipation for the blessings from God that inevitably follow.  God always takes care of us more than we can imagine.  The battle with sin will be going on for the rest of this life, and we believers will be sinners until we crossover into the next life.  We are not perfect yet.  Each time we stumble, we should confess, repent, forgive, and forget.  God forgives and forgets (Psalm 103:12) and we should follow his example.  Sometimes the most difficult person to forgive is ourselves.  If we can learn to forgive ourselves better, then it will be easier for us to forgive others.

There are two kinds of paradise.  The first kind of paradise was the Garden of Eden.  The second kind will be our next life in Heaven.  Likewise, there are two kinds of sin. The first kind of sin happened when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.  The second kind are the sins we commit every day. We see only the tip of the ice berg of these sins.  If we could see all of the sins we commit every day, we would probably be overwhelmed with feelings of guilt.  Once we begin a relationship with Jesus, our inherited sin from Adam and Eve’s mistake is forgiven and forgotten, and God does not see our daily sins anymore (Romans 8:1, Psalm 103:12).  He sees us as his children.  Learning more about God’s love for us inspires us to love him in return.  As we grow spiritually, our love for him grows.  Our growing love for God decreases our desire to sin.  Jesus did all the work to save us and our salvation is based on 100% grace.  His work is finished (John 19:30).  Anything we do for God is not to earn his love. We do it because we love him.  

 As long as we follow the first greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37), our will and God's will are going to become more and more similar as we grow spiritually.  If we do this, we will rarely need to wonder what God's will is.  If we ever wonder what God's will is for us, then our relationship with him needs a little help.  Our relationship with God is more important than any work we are doing for him.  The best thing we can give God is our love.  Also, if we have to ‘force’ ourselves to obey God, then we need to follow Matthew 22:37 more closely.  

 As long as we follow the second greatest commandment (Matthew 22:39), love, empathy, dialogue, and understanding will prevail over hate, bigotry, legalism, and judgmental attitudes.  It is pointless to argue with bigots (Proverbs 9:8, Proverbs 15:12, Proverbs 26:4).  People know we have a relationship with Jesus by our fruit (Matthew 7:16).  The more fruit you see in other people, the more you can trust them with your spiritual growth.  Trust God the Father, trust Jesus, trust the Holy Spirit, and trust the Bible.  However, question people, question religion, and question the church (1 John 4).

 Jesus is a liberal, not a conservative.  He encourages change rather than old traditionalism.  He embraces those different from him and shuns the conservative establishment now just as he did with the Pharisees some 2,000 years ago.  Here on Earth, Jesus was a homeless environmentalist (Psalm 24:1) who advised against hording wealth and profiting from the poor (Matthew 21:12).  Nowadays, most people who call themselves Christians are more loyal to the political right than to Jesus.  They know more about what people say in the conservative media than what Jesus said.  For them, the political right has become their new religion.  In 1981, Billy Graham said, “I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form.  It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right.  The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”  This is why relationship is so much more important than religion.  Religion is manmade.  Relationship is Godmade.  Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran pastor in Colorado, and her website has some good information www.nadiabolzweber.com/  Another very helpful website is www.qchristian.org/      

 Throughout history, the Christian religion has done more to hurt the cause of Christ than help it.  The Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, and the church’s treatment of Galileo and Martin Luther are just four examples.  Even now the Christian religion still continues to fall short in following the second greatest commandment.  When you share your faith with other people, it is better to say, “I have a relationship with Jesus” than “I am a Christian.”  If you tell non-believers that you are a Christian, then most likely you will be met with suspicion.  This is not because of persecution, but because of the reputation of the Christian religion.  However, if you tell people that you have a relationship with Jesus, it has been my experience that non-believers express curiosity rather than defensiveness.

We never need to feel fear again (1 John 4:18, 1 Peter 5:7).  Nothing can ever come between God and us (Romans 8:38-39, Hebrews 13:5).  Nothing will ever snatch us out of Jesus’ hand (John 10:29).  Everything takes time and God's timing is usually slower than our timing.  Patience is an important part of spiritual growth (Psalm 37:7, Psalm 46:10).  God knows what He is doing (Isaiah 55:8).

 One last thing … tithe.  How much we tithe and where we tithe is entirely up to our conscience – the conscience that God gave us.  We cannot out give God!  Everything we have already belongs to God anyway.  We are just managers during this first life.  People who tithe say they cannot afford not to tithe.  Where should we tithe?  We should tithe where we get fed spiritually.  If you do not go to a church that routinely teaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then give to the poor until you find such a church (Matthew 25: 40).  Remember, a church is not a building.  It is the people – your brothers and sisters in Christ.  

 Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9RTvRhXATo