Grace & Knowledge Blog

Tags: necrotizing fasciitis

Every year we look forward to the Feast of Tabernacles celebration in Dayton, Ohio, sponsored by the Church of the Messiah.  We began attending these events in 1998, and they have enriched our lives greatly.

 This year (on Oct 10) a featured speaker will be Dr. Lois Tverberg, founder of the En-Gedi Resource Center and author (with Ann Spangler) of a great new book called Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus:  How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform your Faith (Zondervan, 2009).

I have long been an admirer of Dr.  Tverberg, who gave up a career as a biology professor in order to pursue her passion, sharing the excitement of learning about Jesus in his first-century Jewish context.

Zondervan has generously sent me a review copy of Lois's new book.  Over the next few months I'll post comments on it from time to time. 

Tags: church of the messiah, feast of tabernacles, lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

Yesterday a group of Miami mathematics and statistics faculty had the opportunity to visit the Cincinnati offices of dunnhumby, a British market research firm  that has hired several of our master's students. 

This firm made a name for itself by rescuing Tesco, a large retail chain.  In the US, they've been doing the same thing for Kroger's, Home Depot, Macy's, and Autozone.  They use a shopper's card to gather customer data and then use that data to help the store identify and serve its best customers. 

During our visit we heard about a Kroger's R&D project.  Kroger's is exploring the idea of producing a hand-held scanner for use in its stores.  This seems to be the next logical step in self checkout technology.

When such devices become available, there's the prospect of more data for dunnhumby to analyze.  Hand scanners could give information about where a customer goes within a store and how long the customer spends in each aisle.  Such info could lead to better store layout design.

It has been a pleasant summer in southwestern Ohio.  In particular, temperatures overall have been a bit cooler than usual. 

Sherry told me this morning she had heard that so far it has been the coolest July on record for this region.  A lot of hot air has been emanating from Washington, D.C., but apparently it doesn't reach all the way to Ohio.

How cool will it have to get before people figure out that "global warming" is not a problem?  The world has lots of genuine problems, but human influence on temperature isn't one of them.

Tags: climate change

Last July a colleague at work found out that he had cancer.  It was detected early, and it was a type of cancer that , if treated promptly, had a nearly 100 per cent cure rate.  He decided to undergo the treatment. 

The chemotherapy would keep him away from work for a couple of weeks, however, and so he needed to find someone to teach his precalculus class.  I was available, so I filled in.  Afterward, the colleague thanked me with a $25 gift card from a prominent book store chain.   

Since I love bookstores, I was very happy to receive the gift card.  But I don't often visit malls and suburban shopping centers, so the gift card gathered dust on my desk for almost a year.  Finally, a few days ago I happened to be in the neighborhood of an outlet of the book store chain and took the opportunity to stop by. 

 I spent a blissful hour checking out what the store had.  The selection wasn't especially impressive, but it was good enough to enable me to spend $25 with no problem.  I picked up Resurrection:  The Power of God for Jews and Christians by Kevin Madigan and Jon D. Levenson, a book I've heard lots of good...

Tags: books

The Church of the Messiah received a visit today from an Israeli couple, Mikhael and Orit Murnane, along with four of their six children.  The Murnanes are Messianic believers and have a ministry called "I Bless Jerusalem Ministries." 

Mikhael, who moved from the U.S. to Israel in the late 1970s, is known as a pioneer in Davidic dance. 

Orit, who was born in Israel, said that when she accepted Yeshua as Savior in the 1970s, there were only a handful of Messianics (fifteen or twenty) who were native Israelis.  This small group became leaders in the Messianic movement in Israel.  

Mikhael and Orit said that the Messianic movement in Israel has begun to take off during the past 10 or 15 years.  They estimated that there are now 100-120 congregations, many of them home fellowships, in Israel.   They said that among young people in Israel today there is a new openness to the Gospel.

It is, of course, not easy to be a Jewish believer in Jesus in Israel.  Israeli Messianics face a fair amount of persecution.  They are disowned by their families and harassed by the ultra-Orthodox.  But persecution has made the public more aware of them.

The Murnanes plan to visit...

Tags: church of the messiah