Blessings in Affliction

Thursday, April 20, 2017

True Discipleship

True Discipleship
1 Lead me in Thy righteousness Ps. 5.8
2 Lead me in Thy truth Ps. 25.5
Lead me in Thy truth and teach me Ps. 25.5
3 Lead me in a plain path Ps. 27.11
4 Lead me and guide me, or
For Thy name's sake, lead me and guide me
5 Lead me to the rock that is higher than I Ps. 61.2
6 Lead me in the way everlasting Ps. 139.24
7 Lead me in to the land of uprightness Ps. 143.10

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Easter 2017

Here's my Easter 2017 message:

Dear Beavers,

The Easter I remember most vividly of the 18 Easters I spent in & around Scottsdale was one where Mom took us 2 teen-agers (my sister, Judy, and me) to Glass and Garden Drive-In Church in Scottsdale. You listened to the sermon and “ushers” would come to your car with the collection plate. Now it’s no longer a Drive-In church. Happy Easter, Beavers!

God’s Good Pleasure Heb.13:30,21

The 2 verses I memorized in Scottsdale are from Hebrews 13:20-21--

20	Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21	Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.Amen.
MSG ©	Now put you together, provide you with everything you need to please him, Make us into what gives him most pleasure, by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. All glory to Jesus forever and always! Oh, yes, yes, yes.

1 The Title of God’s pleasure—God of peace Rom.15:33;

Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

1 Thess.5:23--And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I had no peace until I got Jesus who is our Peace Ephesians 2:14Christ is our peace. He made both Jews and Gentiles into one group. With his body, he broke down the barrier of hatred that divided us. Know Jesus: know peace! No Jesus: no peace.

2 The Man of God’s pleasure—Our Lord Jesus Prov.8:30

30	Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;

Proverbs 8:22-31 God says that wisdom is primary and fundamental. It is the foundation on which all life is built. Paul and John may have alluded to some of Solomon's statements about wisdom to describe Christ's presence at the creation of the world (Colossians 1:15-17; Colossians 2:2, 3; --these 2 passages I memorized while living in Scottsdale, too; Revelation 3:14).

3 The Act of God’s pleasure—brought again from the dead Acts 2:22,24

22	"Listen, Israelites, to what I say. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man accredited to you from God by miracles and marvels and signs which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know, Him--
23	delivered up through God's settled purpose and foreknowledge--you by the hands of Gentiles have nailed to a cross and have put to death.
24	But God has raised Him to life, having terminated the throes of death, for in fact it was not possible for Him to be held fast by death.

Peter spoke forthrightly about the resurrection. As Peter preached, the events of Christ’s death and resurrection were still hot news, less than 2 months old. Christ’s execution had been carried out in public before many witnesses. His empty tomb was available for inspection just a short distance away. If Christ had not truly died, Peter’s message would have been laughed at or ignored. If Christ had not been resurrected, authorities could have produced his body and put an end to this new faith. But Peter and the apostles had witnessed the risen Christ. Changed men, they announced the news with great passion and conviction.

4 The Sacrifice of God’s pleasure—the blood of the everlasting covenant Isaiah.53:10

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. I.e.

Isaiah 53:10 (ESV) Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

The Messiah suffered for our sakes, bearing our sins to make us acceptable to God. What can we say to such love? How will we respond to him?

5 The People of God’s pleasure—make YOU perfect Ephesians 1:5,9

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

“Predestined”means marked out beforehand. This is another way of saying that salvation is God’s work and not our own doing. In his infinite love, God has adopted those believing in His Son as His own children. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, he has brought us into his family and made us heirs along with Jesus (Romans 8:17). In Roman law, adopted children had the same rights and privileges as biological children, even if they had been slaves. Paul uses this term to show how strong our relationship to God is. Have you entered into this loving relationship with God?

Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

6 The Purpose of God’s pleasure—to do His will

Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. =

AMPC --

For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

VOICE

For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.

7 The Process of God’s pleasure—working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ Hebrews 13:21

²¹^hequip you with everything good that you may do his will, ⁱworking in us¹ that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, ^jto whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

This verse includes 2 important results of Christ’s death and resurrection. In reverse order, God works in us to make us the kind of people that would please him, and he equips us to do the kind of work that would please him. Let God change yuou from within and then use you to help others.

This is all ‘ACCORDING TO THE GOOD PLEASURE OF HIS WILL’ Ephesians 1:5

Resurrection of Christ

To Joseph’s tomb where none had lain

They carried Him whom foes had slain,

Men set a guard; men sealed the stone;

Men left Him there to sleep alone.

The Sabbath passed: the first day came,

And Mary turned to hear her name.

While Salem slept, the Mighty dead

Had risen from His rocky bed.

In Him our hope, our longing are,

Who is our bright, our Morning Star.

Dr. Johnstone G. Patrick

(Matt. 28.6)

Happy easteR,

Beavers!

Jack Gutknecht

Friday, March 31, 2017

HOW I MEMORIZE (SOMETIMES)

Major system pegs

Sunday, August 23, 2015

6:09 PM

Numeral	Sounds (IPA)	Commonly associated letters	Mnemonic and remarks
0	/s/, /z/	s, soft c, z, x (in xylophone and anxiety)	Zero begins with z (and /z/). The alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
1	/t/, /d/, (/θ/, /ð/)	t, d, (th in thing and this)	Upper case T and D as well as lower case t and d have one vertical stroke each, as with the numeral 1. The alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar sounding dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, though some variant systems may omit the latter pair.
2	/n/	n	Upper case N and lower case n have two vertical strokes each.
3	/m/	m	Both upper case M and lower case m each have three vertical strokes and look like the numeral 3 on its side.
4	/r/	r, l (in colonel)	R is the last letter of four.
5	/l/	l	L is the Roman numeral for 50. Among the five digits of one's left hand, the thumb and index fingers also form an L.
6	/tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/	ch (in cheese and chef), j, soft g, sh, c (in cello and special), cz (in Czech), s (in tissue and vision), sc (in fascist and schedule), t (in picture, ration and equation), tsch (in putsch), z (in seizure)	Upper case G and lower case g look like the numeral 6 flipped horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Lower case script j tends to have a lower loop, like the numeral 6. The postalveolar affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar sounding postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/.
7	/k/, /ɡ/	k, hard c, q, ch (in loch), hard g	Both upper case K and lower case k look like two small 7s on their sides. The velar stops /k/ and /g/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
8	/f/, /v/	f, ph (in phone), v	Lower case script f, which tends to have an upper and lower loop, looks like a figure-8. The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
9	/p/, /b/	p, b, gh (in hiccough)	Lowercase p and b look like the numeral 9 flipped horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Also, labial stops /p/ and /b/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.

Numeral	Sounds (IPA)	Commonly associated letters	Mnemonic and remarks
0	/s/, /z/	s, soft c, z, x (in xylophone and anxiety)	Zero begins with z (and /z/). The alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
1	/t/, /d/, (/θ/, /ð/)	t, d, (th in thing and this)	Upper case T and D as well as lower case t and d have one vertical stroke each, as with the numeral 1. The alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar sounding dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, though some variant systems may omit the latter pair.
2	/n/	n	Upper case N and lower case n have two vertical strokes each.
3	/m/	m	Both upper case M and lower case m each have three vertical strokes and look like the numeral 3 on its side.
4	/r/	r, l (in colonel)	R is the last letter of four.
5	/l/	l	L is the Roman numeral for 50. Among the five digits of one's left hand, the thumb and index fingers also form an L.
6	/tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/	ch (in cheese and chef), j, soft g, sh, c (in cello and special), cz (in Czech), s (in tissue and vision), sc (in fascist and schedule), t (in picture, ration and equation), tsch (in putsch), z (in seizure)	Upper case G and lower case g look like the numeral 6 flipped horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Lower case script j tends to have a lower loop, like the numeral 6. The postalveolar affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ form a voiceless and voiced pair, as do the similar sounding postalveolar fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/.
7	/k/, /ɡ/	k, hard c, q, ch (in loch), hard g	Both upper case K and lower case k look like two small 7s on their sides. The velar stops /k/ and /g/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
8	/f/, /v/	f, ph (in phone), v	Lower case script f, which tends to have an upper and lower loop, looks like a figure-8. The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.
9	/p/, /b/	p, b, gh (in hiccough)	Lowercase p and b look like the numeral 9 flipped horizontally and rotated 180° respectively. Also, labial stops /p/ and /b/ form a voiceless and voiced pair.

The following mnemonic hints make it a lot easier to remember the table. One overall pattern is that when more than one letter is associated with a number, the letters sound similar (for example, "p" and "b" for "9")

1 - a typewritten "t" or "d" has just 1 downstroke
2 - a typewritten "n" has 2 downstrokes
3 - a typewritten "m" has 3 downstrokes
4 - the number 4 ends in the letter "r"
5 - hold out your left hand palm-outward and thumb out at a 90 degree angle - the five fingers form an "L" shape
6 - a "J" looks like a backward 6
7 - a "K" can be made from two back-to-back 7's
8 - a lower-case, written f looks like an 8
9 - looks like a backward "p" or an upside-down "b"
0 - the word "zero" begins with the letter "z"

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Remembering Numbers - Phonetic-Number Method

Remembering numbers is hard. But if you want to build a great memory, you need a way to memorize them.

Fortunately, there is a memory trick you can use for long numbers. It's called the Phonetic Number system (or Major system).

It was developed over 300 years ago and is one of the most powerful of the memory systems that use imagination and association.

Why is remembering numbers important? Imagine your boss asks you to give a sales presentation to the president of your company.

If the presentation includes sales figures and statistics, would you rather shuffle through papers or amaze everyone by spitting out the numbers from memory?

That's just one example, but if you need to remember passwords, phone extensions, mathematical constants, street addresses, product codes, Bible verses, or anything else numeric, then invest some time learning the Phonetic Number system.

Note: For a simpler way to remember long numbers temporarily, check out the Direct Chunking method.

Phonetic Number System

The Phonetic Number system is a substitute alphabet for changing numbers to letters. The reason this helps in remembering numbers is due to the effectiveness of "chunking" and memory.

For example, if I asked you to memorize the phrase, "Four score and seven years ago", you could easily do it. You could repeat it back perfectly every time - even though that phrase consists of 30 letters and spaces in a very specific order.

Now try memorizing the 30-digit number "8567 13543 887 54365 23678 369". Pretty impossible, right? But both the phrase and the number contain 30 characters, so what's the difference?

The reason one is simple to memorize and the other is impossible results from the chunking effect of the alphabet when letters are used to form words. Letters are clumped into words, and words are clumped into meaningful phrases.

So an incredibly powerful trick for remembering numbers would be finding a way to convert the numbers to letters. Then you could take the random 30-digit number and turn it into a series of words or phrases. This is exactly how the Phonetic Number system works.

Number to Letter Conversion

Here is the conversion table. To be able to use the Phonetic Number system for remembering numbers, you must first memorize this table (sorry). It's actually not as hard as it looks.

1 = is the "t" or "d" sound
2 = is the "n" sound
3 = is the "m" sound
4 = is the "r" sound
5 = is the "l" sound
6 = is the "j", "ch", or "sh" sound
7 = is the "k" or hard "g" sound
8 = is the "f" or "v" sound
9 = is the "p" or "b" sound
0 = is the "z" or "s" sound

1 - a typewritten "t" or "d" has just 1 downstroke
2 - a typewritten "n" has 2 down strokes
3 - a typewritten "m" has 3 down strokes
4 - the number 4 ends in the letter "r"
5 - hold out your left hand palm-outward and thumb out at a 90 degree angle - the five fingers form an "L" shape
6 - a "J" looks like a backward 6
7 - a "K" can be made from two back-to-back 7's
8 - a lower-case, written f looks like an 8
9 - looks like a backward "p" or an upside-down "b"
0 - the word "zero" begins with the letter "z"

You should be able to memorize this list with about 10 minutes of practice.

One more point. Notice that all of the letter equivalents are consonants. Vowels are not assigned to a number in this method. Nor are the consonants "w", "h", or "y" (w-h-y).

This is a good thing, because it means you can use the vowels and the three unused consonants in your word equivalents however you like.

How to Use the Method

I'll illustrate the use of the Phonetic Number system for remembering numbers with a couple simple examples. After studying these examples to see how it's done, be brave and try it out on something you need to remember!

Example 1 - Memorizing a 6-Digit Passcode. Let's say you work at a company where every employee is assigned a unique passcode that must be punched on a keypad when entering and exiting the company headquarters. They change the code periodically too, just to keep things interesting, and they don't want you to write the number down (for security reasons).

Here is your new code: 954392. Remembering numbers as long as this one can be difficult, but hold on: using the Phonetic Number memory system, this number could be translated to one or more words using these number-to-letter conversions:

9 = p, b

5 = l

4 = r

3 = m

9 = p, b

2 = n

So if you've memorized the conversion table above, you should be able to think of a catchy little phrase. Maybe "POOL ROOM BUN", or "BOIL RUM PAN", or any of several other possibilities.

Then you would take your silly phrase and quickly think of a visual association to remember it by. For instance, "POOL ROOM BUN" might make you think of a giant hotdog in a big bun playing billiards in a pool hall.

(For more information about using association and substitute words, see the Using Association page.)

You could associate the actual keypad by the door at work with a hotdog bun as well. Then, each time you were about to push the buttons on the keypad to get in the building, you would automatically think "hotdog bun".

Perhaps the keys on the keypad are little hotdog buns. This thought would remind you of the hotdog with the big bun playing pool (POOL ROOM BUN = 954392).

Example 2 - The Sales Presentation. Now let's suppose you are a salesperson for Widgets, Inc. Your supervisor has asked you to present the latest quarterly sales figures to your company president.

You want to make sure and lock those dollar amounts in your head so you don't mess up the presentation.

Here are the sales numbers: Widget A - $53,000; Widget B - $82,000; and Widget C - $19,000.

Now, if you just relied on rote memorization, you might not only forget the actual sales figures, but you could get confused about which figure goes with which widget.

So let's combine the Alphabet Peg memory system (sound-alike version) with the Phonetic Number system to make sure that doesn't happen.

In the sound-alike Alphabet Peg system, the equivalents for A, B, and C are as follows:

A - Hay
B - Bee
C - See

That's easy enough. Now for the numbers. Since all three amounts were rounded to the nearest thousand, we can forget about all the zeroes, since you will automatically remember that part of the number (you will). That leaves you with memorizing the numbers 53, 82, and 19.

Using the Phonetic Number conversion chart, we have:

53 = l, m
82 = f/v, n
19 = t, p/b

So one possible conversion might be:

53 = lame
82 = fan
19 = tape

Putting everything together, we have:

hay lame
bee fan
see tape

So here's what you could visualize:

A big yellow hay stack with arms, legs, and a face (i.e., personified), walking down the road with a cane and limping (i.e., a lame haystack). This gives you $53,000 (53 = l,m) as the sales figure for Widget A (A=hay).

This may seem silly, but think about it for second - as long as you remember your image of a lame haystack, there is no way you can forget the sales figure for Widget A or confuse the amount with another widget's sales figures!

A swarm of bees flying into a fan. (I'll let you visualize that one on your own.) That gives $82,000 (82 = f,n) as the sales figure for Widget B (B=bee).
A long piece of silver duct tape being wrapped around your eyes (ouch!). That gives $19,000 (19=t,p) as the sales figure for Widget C (C=see).

It should be clear at this point that the Phonetic Number system really works, and not only that it is kind of fun. Your next steps should be to review the Number to Letter conversion chart above. Then put it into practice at work, at school, and in your everyday life with the long numbers you need to remember!

Home > Memory Systems > Remembering Numbers

In memorizing a Bible verse such as Psalm 85:6, first copy it --

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?Then take the first letter of each word, WTnruatTpmriT? Notive that I change the lower case "t" to an upper case "T" because it stands for God.

or if you want additional help, use a period (.) after any word ending in "s", here "us". So that the above example will look like this:

Psalm 85:6

WTnru.atTpmriT?
Psalm 85:6

or retaining the marks of punctuation:

Psalm 85:6 WTnrua:tTpmriT? --
Psalm 85:6

or

WTnru.a:tTpmriT?

or if you like, just:

Wtnruattpmrit? Psalm 85:6