Now ministering for second service: Pst Joel Awogu @AwoguJoel
Topic: Man in Three Dimension
Text: 1Thess 5:23
Sometimes, we do things amiss without understanding who we are.
Who are you? Do you know what manner of being you are?

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

Man is a combination of three things. The Body, Soul, and Spirit.
Take good care of these three things. Most times you guide your car, phone. Do you guide your spirit?

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

God relates to us through our spirit and if you don't take care of your spirit, you won't hear from God.

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

What do you do to your soul? Mind what gets in your mind.
Nobody makes you feel bad without your consent. Mind what makes you envious of others. These are things that destroy the soul.

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

Protect your spirit from what can quench your fire. Things like laziness, pleasure. Mind what brings these three down (Spirit, Soul, and Body)

#ChurchGRA #GRAService #Restoration

What do you think your students might draw if you asked them to draw a mathematician? What if you asked them why someone would hire a mathematician?

This study asked exactly that to 470 year 8's across 5 countries. The results are depressing. But also hilarious.

Thread...
1/n

Here are some of their drawings:
"an old stain, he's too lazy to wash his shirt" "fat from doing nothing but maths".

2/n

This student drew a mathematician that is apparently a devil teacher...

3/n

This is umm... concerning

4/n

"You should all know this"

5/n

Thread — I’m very happy and relieved that my elderly parents got their first shot of the coronavirus vaccine this week. But the story of how they got it is nucking futs and illustrates just how messed up the vaccine distribution system is. 1/?

Just for background, they are both Pennsylvania residents living right now in South Florida and they are both between 65 and 75 years old. They own a small condo in a retirement community. They both have co-morbidities, like most people their age...

They watched in horror when Trump held huge rallies in Florida that spread the virus and they hung their heads in disbelief as Gov DeSantis bungled the response every step of the way. They did the best they could and were very lucky not have caught it...

When the vaccines started to be sent out, they wanted to wait to get their shots until after healthcare workers and people over 75 got them. They were confused by the lack of information about distribution and tried to get information, to no avail...

Inside their retirement community, the residents tried as much as they could to get a vaccine distribution outpost deployed there, but nothing ever happened. The phone line advertised for information led to nothing, when it wasn’t jammed. Emails disappeared into the abyss...

@MarkYoungTruth @chuckwoolery 1) What would you say if a BLM/ANTIFA activist (attached) was paying people in 2020 during BLM/ANTIFA "protests", I mean riots. Could that same man have been at the Capitol helping plan the fake MAGA people (attached)?

I just saw a thread with people debating teacher’s salaries again.

Are we still doing this? Are we still throwing around this 180 days?

I don’t know one teacher that works 180 days and I know THOUSANDS of teachers. I don’t know one that works 8-3 pm.

Maybe that’s just my network? You can be connected to plenty of orgs and schools and someone will still try to tell me about what educators deserve...

With an anecdote about their Uncle’s cousin’s entrepreneur friend that used to teach.

STOP THIS.

And the educators that tell you...”I take all my days. I take all my summers.”

They dream lessons. They wake up with kids on their minds. They plan without realizing they’re planning.

They get called to professional development WEEKS before school begins.

Professional developments look different at every school. Leaders implement their visions based on need, board directives, survival, and sometimes ego.

I know educators that are painting walls and scrubbing floors during “PD.” I know educators that are internalizing...

Curriculum a mile a minute and are being asked to memorize them. I know educators that are being asked to write instruction from scratch. I know leaders that were told 1 week before school starts that the fire/health/contractor dept. cleared them to be in the building.

Issues of Sikh Identity: Sanatanist-Sikh Debate (Sheena Pall):

The earliest known leader of Sanatan Dharm movement in Punjab, Pandit Shardha Ram Phillauri did not show much concern with Hindu-Sikh identity in his Sikhan de Raj di Vithya (Story of Sikh Rule) published in 1865.

The Bharat Dharm Mahamandal did not show any interest in the issue of the identity of the Sikhs in its first report of 1889.

In 1897, however, in a large public meeting at Lahore the Sanatanist Hindus passed a resolution that the Sikhs were a part of the Hindu community.

Question of Sikh identity became a legal issue when Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia died in Sep 1898 and his widow contested his Will, claiming that "Hindu law of inheritance under which he had given his property in trust did not apply to a Sikh".

The Chief Court of the Punjab ruled that Sardar Dyal Singh was, in fact, a Hindu.

The Bharat Dharm Mahamandal took notice of this issue and passed a resolution in a meeting at Delhi, asserting that the ten Gurus of the Sikhs from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh were Hindus.

Furthermore, "Baba Khem Singh Bedi, a descendant of Guru Nanak", and "Bawa Sumer Singh (Bhalla), a descendant of Guru Amar Das", subscribed to the view that Sikhs were Hindu.

I’m honestly just so sick to death of seeing hypersexualised female celebrities. It’s so, so damaging and to think that my nieces are growing up surrounded by it makes me worry constantly about the next generation of girls and women.

And it’s so fucking prevalent. Hypersexualised female celebrities are the norm, not the exception. Especially black/brown women. When I think about how every single Top 40 song sung by a female is about male pleasure, it hits home how profoundly mired in patriarchy we are.

Can we just have female celebrities that aren’t forced to sexualise themselves? Is that too much to ask for the diet that young girls grow up on?

Ariana grande’s latest album is *literally* named after trying new sex positions—for a man. The most famous pop song by women of last year, WAP, was literally about male pleasure and the lengths women will go to for it, and included the lyrics, “I wanna gag, I wanna choke.”

Don’t even get me started on the imagery. The music videos, the photography. The constant fucking nudity. The way almost every dance move is an allusion to sex.

Y’all, my Great-Grandfather was on his second day as the newly appointed deputy sheriff when he was shot and killed by escaped convicts whom he caught robbing a gas station. The law at that time required that they be put to death, and the verdict was unanimous...

Four men who were involved (the oldest being 23) were condemned to die in North Carolina’s cutting edge gas chamber. His widow, my great-grandmother, was a devout Christian who actually believed what Jesus said and lived like it. She(!) started a petition to NC’s governor...

To grant clemency to the men who murdered her only husband. Moved and shocked by her holiness, not only did the trial judge sign the petition, but EVERY (!) juror signed as well. Governor Hoey received it, and...

On March 6 1940, just an hour before the four condemned were to meet their bitter almond asphyxiation, the governor called and granted clemency. The men served time and were eventually released. The newspaper has as the only quote of one, “Praise God!”

Personally, I understand the death penalty. People do awful things, and I don’t find it heart wrenching that they meet this fate. Yet. I am Catholic: this means I fully accept the teaching of the church whether I ‘feel it’ or not. Mercy heals the world, not vengeance...

Yesterday, the CDC released new guidelines for schools. Clear, science-based guidance was long overdue, so everyone was agog all week.

Did they get what they wanted? This is a long 🧵, buckle in.

Before I dive in: I have no agenda here. I am not anti-kids, anti-schools or anti-teachers. The only thing I am is anti-virus. I follow the science, but despite what both sides insist, the science is not straightforward, or we wouldn't have this much division and dissent.

So, back to the CDC guidelines: Pro-opening advocates hoped for a sensible read of the evidence and teachers unions for strict precautions and vaccinations. Did they get what they want? Short answer: No.

There is no issue that is more divisive right now (ok, masks and vaccines). But kids of all colors are suffering, and the long-term loss of education and emotional toll might be devastating. OTOH: the rates in the US might be dropping but objectively they are still very high.

Schools should be the last to close and first to reopen, but many communities have not done that and probably will never. Those communities have not "budgeted" for schools by closing bars and restaurants. In fact, many are now reopening closed businesses before schools.

5th and Park Ave, apparently a group has gathered and some of them have lasers. Starting to march.

23:23

People are spray painting buildings at 5th and Park, possibly the Justice Center.
23:26

Police have observed several instances of graffiti and damage to property with this group.

Fireworks at 5th and Park, and more spray painting. 23:30

Medical Examiner's office was just tagged (graffiti). 23:33

Have you seen the stories about how Trump administration officials and staffers for Ted Cruz are finding that no one in the private sector will hire them because they are forever tainted by their former bosses' disgraceful behavior?

They're bullshit.

https://t.co/XvYDPpR9yd

1/

The Swamped site from @twittlesis is a crowdsourced list of Trump's ugliest swamp-gators and the employers who put them in positions of power and authority despite their complicity with a fascist would-be

On @TheProspect, @alex_sammon provides highlights of the swamp-to-industry pipeline.

Unsurprisingly, babykiller companies LOVE Trump's gators. Jim Mattis? Board member for General Dynamics. Andrea Thompson? Northrop Grumman. HR McMaster? Zoom.

Rick Perry is back at Energy Transfer Partners, parleying his government service into a plum role in energetically rendering the planet unfit for human habitation.

Ryan Zinke's in fintech.

4/

As punishment for his multitude of sins as the president's personal attorney, Donald McGahn has been sentenced to the Wearing of the White Shoes, threatening people on behalf of the clients of corporate law powerhouse Jones Day.

5/

Reflecting on the discussion over School Exclusions, it's struck me that many see the concept of Abolition as like "Reform, only better". My experience of running a prison segregation unit has informed my view of how wrong this is. And so... A THREAD 1/

Firstly, updating laptop prevents a blog post, but I may get to that later, if so, I'll link below. To begin: A few years ago, I took over the senior management position in a prison that had departmental responsibility for the prison's Segregation Unit 2/

A Segregation unit is essentially a small living unit within a prison, where people can be taken for the purposes of punishment, or separation from the general population for safety reasons. 3/

When I took over the function, there were normally 12-16 residents, and almost never fewer. There are rules around how/why you can segregate people, which are too much for twitter, but for our purposes, we'll use the two main "themes"- Punishment and Safety 4/

People can be segregated as a punishment after an Adjudication, or held for the good order and discipline of the prison. (See the parallels with the school exclusions debate?) Segregation is not the only punishment available from Adjudication, but is often seen as the top one 5/

If women knew how they carried the divine letters they carried, they would understand why dark groups made so much effort to break the marriage tradition. The hymen of women is not only for health and hygiene purposes.

Especially as it is thought in the eastern parts of the world, it has nothing to do with honor. Every woman has a divine letter with her virginity. This divine letter is in the first sexual experience after a true spiritual marriage, in the presence of God, in sickness-health, ..

good day-bad day, until death separates them (without any earthly condition), in the first sexual experience that takes place after a true spiritual marriage, where they are promised to be with each other for their spiritual development.

During the opening of the membrane, its seal is opened with the first drop of blood flowing. This blood is the only divinely allowed blood. All other bloodshed violates divine laws. When there is no marriage, that is, when the oath is not given before God,

the divine protection is removed and this letter is destroyed by the dark beings. This is why the peoples of Europe were taken to unmarried partnerships, polygamy, youth madnesses, and these were normalized, especially for the destruction of the sacred letters of great importance

This #MLKDay—a week after the white supremacist attack on the Capitol—I wanted to share some of Dr. King's words that’ve given me strength over the years, that helped me through my own death threats, & that inform how we should respond to the insurrection.

Re: Loving your enemies: "Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act … [but also] we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy…. We must in strength & humility meet hate with love."

Full

Radical love doesn’t mean accepting defeat or ignoring an evil act. It's fighting for justice with love in our hearts. That’s what brought me to become a civil rights attorney, how I responded to my own death threats, & how we must respond to white supremacist insurrection.

We must reject disingenuous calls for unity that seek to ignore the evil acts perpetrated at the capitol, calls for unity that put false labels on those evil acts, or calls for unity that seek to hide those responsible from justice and history.

But we must also rise over our raw emotions & recognize that reflexively acting on those emotions will only make matters worse. Now is not the time for retributive justice. It's time for restorative justice, for addressing the underlying causes of the crime — white supremacy.

Part of the ecosystem we need to contend with is that the federal grants from which many research assistants and postdocs in science are paid set the pay for RAs and postdocs too low. Faculty may feel tempted to shrug and pass on the bad pay without pushing back. That’s fucked.

If your grant doesn’t allow you to pay certain salaries, be up front during the hiring process about that. I talk openly to my students about why the numbers are what they are, depending on my funding source.

It is also the case that when I apply for grant money, I try to ask for a higher than typical salary and I do try to justify my request in my budget justification. I still haven’t won a grant with a postdoc in it so I don’t know how that’s going.

In the long run, I’ve reminded my students and postdoc that I think unions are great!

A union contract that binds the university to pay them a certain among actually makes it so that my request to federal agencies is “this is what I am required to pay.” Academic unions ftw!

I also think that all faculty should, to the extent of their ability given their circumstances, participate in advocating for an increase in minimum wages and an increase in federal and state funding for science and universities to cover the increased cost.

There's been a lot of discussion about how to communicate uncertainty about vaccines/transmission, guidance for vaccinated people, how to increase vaccine demand/address hesitancy, & what vaccines mean for the "end" of the pandemic.

Here are my thoughts. I call it "the well."

This pandemic has plunged us to the bottom of a very deep well. After recovering from the shock of a long, abrupt fall into cold, fetid water, we looked up and saw only darkness. But we did find a ladder leading upward.

We've been slowly climbing this ladder, sometimes slipping and falling down a few rungs, but we've endured and kept climbing. Our dedication was rewarded. We've developed very efficacious vaccines, and now as we look up, we can see a small circle of light at the top.

As we continue to climb, the circle will slowly expand. The hope of that circle, slowly growing as we climb ever closer to the top, keeps us going. Eventually we will emerge into the bright sun. Hopefully then we'll put a cover on the well so we can't fall in again.

Now that we have two very efficacious vaccines—that have exceeded our wildest expectations at protecting us against disease. That's a tremendous public health achievement. It should allow us to tighten our grip on the ladder and give us a second wind on the climb.