I Know That I Am Right...

When you think that you are right, you could be wrong...
When you think that you are wrong, you could be right...
Things are never what they at first appear to be.

Acts 17:11These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Facebook's AI Keeps Inventing Languages That Humans Can't Understand (fastcodesign.com)

"Researchers at Facebook realized their bots were chattering in a new language," writes Fast Company's Co.Design.

"Then they stopped it." An anonymous reader summarizes their report: Facebook -- as well as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Apple -- said they were more interested in AI's that could talk to humans. But when two of Facebook's AI bots negotiated with each other "There was no reward to sticking to English language," says Dhruv Batra, visiting research scientist from Georgia Tech at Facebook AI Research (FAIR). Co.Design writes that the AI software simply, "learned, and evolved," adding that the creation of new languages is a phenomenon Facebook "has observed again, and again, and again". And this, of course, is problematic.

"Should we allow AI to evolve its dialects for specific tasks that involve speaking to other AIs? To essentially gossip out of our earshot? Maybe; it offers us the possibility of a more interoperable world, a more perfect place where iPhones talk to refrigerators that talk to your car without a second thought. The tradeoff is that we, as humanity, would have no clue what those machines were actually saying to one another."
One of the researchers believes that that's definitely going in the wrong direction. "We already don't generally understand how complex AIs think because we can't really see inside their thought process. Adding AI-to-AI conversations to this scenario would only make that problem worse."

Chuck Smith "Finding Yourself"

Yielding

Yielding to the Spirit of God- Is Best

We as believers have got to understand the importance of yielding our minds to the will of God, both in terms of allowing Him to use us as He wills, and of simple obedience to the Lord on a day-to-day basis.

Now, I'm not referring to any sort of legalism here- I've both seen, and been a victim of that for so many years that I get sick to my stomach at the mere thought of it.....

What I DO want to deal with here is our daily walk with Christ- in the power of the Holy Spirit. If we have problems in this area, it will be difficult to yield our members to Him in order to be used of Him in any significant way.

Read the 119th psalm. David is so desirous of fully following the law of God- verses 35 through 37 read, "MAKE me to go in the path of Thy commandments; for therin do I delight. INCLINE my heart unto Thy testamonies, and NOT to covetousness. TURN AWAY mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken Thou me in Thy way."

David both craves the Presence and the law of God, and knows just how prone he is, left to his own devices, to wander from the God he so dearly loves.Re-read those words, "MAKE, INCLINE, TURN AWAY"...He is asking- beseeching the Lord to cause him to look to Him, for he knows what a rascal he is in the flesh, despite God referring to him as "a man after Mine own heart".

This is something we must all learn, if we wish to be used of God- our utter helplesness, and the Lord's all-sufficiency.

Years ago, Phil Keaggy wrote and sang a song-( I don't remember the title, but) it contained the words, "I never had a selfless thought since I was born." When I first heard those lyrics, I thought to myself, "Finally- here's a believer that I can relate to, someone who knows the kind of struggles I go through!" .....

.
Realizing the importance of looking to Him, and not ourselves, on a daily basis, is so important because we tend, as David knew, to go our own way.

When we follow OUR will, we quickly get into trouble because we're naturally attracted to the things of the world (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life), and its pull is far too powerful for any person to resist.

God knows that our ONLY hope is trusting and depending upon Him, and that's what obedience to Him is. Once we begin to understand and walk in that truth, God can freely use us by His Spirit as He wills, and isn't that what we all desire in our heart of hearts? May He bring us all to that place!

God bless you.
pastor Jim Ewing

Happy 4th!

My ancestors fought for my country of my birth America. 

When you become a citizen of America you become an American!

The first battle of the Revolutionary War, fought in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775.

British troops had moved from Boston toward Lexington and Concord to seize the colonists' military supplies and arrest revolutionaries.

In Concord, advancing British troops met resistance from the Minutemen, and American volunteers

harassed the retreating British troops along the Concord-Lexington Road. Paul Revere, on his famous ride, had first alerted the Americans to the British movement.

My own family was there and we fought for our country!

Beyond a doubt we Sloanes are descended from patriots that marched on the alarm of 1775.

From the archives:

 MASSACHUSETTS

 Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War. The sons', of David Slone b. abt. 1700, of Dorchesterand John Slone Jr., a grandson of David of Dorchester, all served in the Revolutionary War.

Anyone tracing their lineage back to these patriots would prove SAR/DAR eligibility.

 I trace back to David of Dorchester (John, Timothy, Charles) can also prove eligibility through  (Molly) Mary Polly Silvester (wife of Timothy) who was a daughter of Philip Silvester son of Benjamin Silvester.

I am also traced back to the Mayflower Pilgrims.

So is it any wonder that I am so passionate about America?

That I am so concerned with the things that go on in America?

My family has lived here from the beginning of this great nation and has fought for her freedom always.

David Sloane son of
Donald Sloane son of
Percy Sloane son of
Horace Sloane son of
Lyman Sloane son of
Charles Slone son of
Timothy Sloan son of
David Sloan

And the list goes on and on...

 this is my country!

So when I do research and see what is going on in my country I get concerned as do many others.

 I am a voice that started a long time ago in America.

There is a family heritage that belongs to me.

 I believe that as a family member of the founding fathers of this great nation my prayers and conversation with God over America have some value.

If the patriarch Abraham had a headstone, it probably would have read:

 “Abraham – The Father of Faith: 

All the nations of the earth are blessed because of you.” 

 Abraham’s son Isaac desired to follow in the heritage of his father’s faith, being challenged by God not to trust in his own initiatives but in God’s unending promises.

One of the great truths God teaches all believers is wherever He leads, He will also provide. 

This principle has been proven many times throughout Old Testament history. 

We see this when Moses led the Israelite's out of Egypt. 

God took more than three million people into a barren wilderness and there supplied them with an abundance of water and manna from heaven. 

In order for Isaac to know the blessing of God’s provision, God used King Abimelech to redirect him back to the old wells of Abraham.

“And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them”
(Genesis 26:18). 

When Isaac arrived at the place where the wells had been dug, he found the Philistines had been in the area and had filled them with dirt.

 Although the outlook of his immediate security was extremely bleak, God would use these unfavorable circumstances to speak to Isaac.

In a land where water is always at a premium, you would have to ask yourself, “Who would be crazy enough to fill wells with dirt when there was such a scarcity of water? 

Why would they do that when there could have been enough for everyone?” 

But this is a picture of a darker and more subtle attack of Satan. 

This is what the devil wants to do in the life of the believer; he wants to stop the flow of water until nothing is left. 

Then he covers over the places where others once found their strength and sustenance in God. 

This makes it almost impossible for those coming afterwards to know and understand how God had sustained them in difficult times.

 For example, simply look at the thousands of monolithic cathedrals left to us today which dot the landscape with their peaked towers and crosses. 

Architecturally these buildings are beautiful, but inside they have become empty relics of a past revival. 

No longer do they brim with people or are filled with the praises of God; they only stand as stone edifices and outer shells called churches.

This is why God took Isaac back to the old wells and caused him to dig in the same places Abraham had dug. In his time of trial, Abraham went down deep into the bedrock and had found water to live by. 

Here Isaac, representing the next generation, could also find the same source of strength his father had found. 

If we want our lives to make a difference in our generation, I believe we have to go to the old wells of truth where others previously found their hope in God. 

We must learn what it means again to trust completely in God’s direction. His ways are always right and though He does not expect us to always understand, He does expect us to believe Him and obey.

Isaac was in a dry and barren place, he needed to see God as the one who would take care of him. 

So, he began to dig again the same wells of Abraham. 

 “And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water” (Genesis 26:19). 

In the Hebrew text, the Scriptures indicate that the words springing water here literally mean alive or living water. God was providing life sustaining water for Isaac’s family, servants and herds.

Today, beloved, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also our God, He is our Jehovah Jireh, He is our Rehoboth,( place for us), and the kingdom of His Son, Jesus Christ, rules and reigns in our lives. Praise God!

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are the wells of my fathers. 

Today there are those who desire to fill those same wells...they want to block them up with dirt.

In the life of the Christian the devil does not want you to find living water, so he will immediately attempt to stop its flow by bringing you into contention with someone.

 James, the Lord’s half brother, wrote about strife, saying, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:16).

 James understood that when the door of contention is opened, it will lead to hurtful and destructive conditions.

 In Isaac’s situation this was proven to be true, for when they attempted to dig another well, even greater strife arose.

Today we are seeing strife. 

There is a battle in America.

Pray fervently.

There is room for all people at the cross no matter color, what age, race, or nationality.

 And when you become His child, He enlarges your heart to love all of His people even those who have wounded you.

 He will make enough room in your heart to overlook the willful and hurtful transgressions of others. 

Whereas, you could not do this before you came to Christ.  

Pray for peace in America.

In the gospel of John chapter four, Jesus gives us this same principle by loving and forgiving someone who would be considered as an outsider or even as an enemy. 

When He came to Jacob’s Well in Samaria, Jesus sat down and asked a woman of religious and cultural mixture for a drink. 

If a Jew, other than Christ had met that woman at the well, she would have been ignored and shunned because of her background, let alone her gender. 

Jesus did not allow anything to alter his deliberate treatment of her as being someone created and loved by God. 

That day she was given living water from God Himself.

If you want to continue to experience the same fullness as the woman at the well, you have to start by forgiving those the world says should be your enemy.

 You offer love and forgiveness, whether it is accepted or not. 

The moment you do, it will be as though you have dug out all the dirt from the old wells of Abraham, and living water will begin to flow again.

 Just think of the impact you would have in the workplace if you forgive a co-worker who had wounded you.

 Think how everyone on the job would marvel that you would actually reach out to this hurtful person and offer friendship to them again.

The sonnet on a plaque inside the pedestal that the statue of Liberty stands reads:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” 

The only Statue of Liberty inscription can be found on the tablet in her left hand, which says JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776), the day the United States adopted the Declaration of Independence.

America is independent. 

America is free. 

Let us keep it that way.

You can be a Christian in America openly.

We can serve our Lord freely in America, let's keep it that way!

While we have poor choices for leadership here on earth, we still bow down before the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Our soon coming King.

 Jesus Christ master and creator of the universe.

An American son of God
David Sloane

 Perhaps you have recently seen this flag?

 Meaning of the Thin Blue Line Flag:

The Blue represents the officer and the courage they find deep inside when faced with insurmountable odds.

The Black background was designed as a constant reminder of our fallen brother and sister officers.

 The Line is what police officers protect, the barrier between anarchy and a civilized society, between order and chaos, between respect for decency and lawlessness.

Together they symbolize the camaraderie law enforcement officers all share, a brotherhood like none other.