I want you to open your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and I want to read a passage to
you that is going to be the focus of our discussion together...2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verses
7 through 10.
We begin in verse 7, as the Apostle Paul writes, "And because of the surpassing greatness of
the revelations, for this reason to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a
thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep me from exalting myself.
Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me.
And He has said to me on each of those three occasions, by the way, 'My grace is sufficient
for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'
Most gladly therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ
may dwell in me.
Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions,
with difficulties for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then I am strong."
Now if ever there was a passage in direct opposition to the prosperity message, that's
it.
There is nothing here about success and wealth and comfort and ease and having it your way
and seeing the fulfillment of all your dreams and desires and longings.
This is about suffering and suffering is the path to spiritual victory.
I want you to focus on the very familiar statement in verse 9, and that's where we're going to
begin.
"My grace is sufficient for you."
My grace is enough, My grace is all you need no matter how difficult the issue you face.
We're very familiar with the concept of grace, very, very familiar.
We talk about it, we sing about it, we use it repeatedly in our prayers and in our Christian
conversation and we even go to a church named Grace Community Church.
This is perhaps the most used theological term in the New Testament.
It is a magnificent word that appears 155 times, as a matter of fact, in the New Testament.
This Greek term, grace, the word is charis, it means basically a generous benefit given,
a favor bestowed.
And in the sense of the New Testament and New Testament theology, it is a generous benefit
given, a favor bestowed to someone who could never earn it.
This defines our relationship to God.
We are awakened from our spiritual sleep and our spiritual death by a work of God that
could only be called a work of grace, undeserved favor.
We are redeemed, regenerated, adopted, justified, converted, born again, pick whatever term
you want in the panoply of terms related to salvation and you will always be able to attach
by grace because we have no merit by which to earn any of God's favors given to us in
our salvation.
We are even sanctified by grace because we are now no more able to earn our way to spiritual
maturity than we were to earn our way to salvation, that too is a work of grace.
And our glorification in the future is a work of grace so that throughout all eternity the
great wonder of all wonders is that we will be in heaven where God will pour out the fullness
of His grace upon us forever and ever and ever and ever and we will never get over the
fact that all of this is by grace.
It is favor, it is benefit, it is blessing unearned and undeserved.
Now the New Testament talks about this.
As I said, you have the word 155 times and it tells us so much about grace, we are familiar
with it in the general sense.
Let me help you get a little more specifically familiar with it as we look at this passage.
It needs to be said, as we contemplate the big picture of God's grace, that God does
not skimp on His grace.
In fact, we are reminded in Ephesians chapter 2 that God blesses us according to the surpassing
riches of His grace.
God's grace, you might say, is superabundant.
Every benefit that we experience spiritually is by grace.
One of the most wonderful statements made about our Lord was that inspired word from
John in John 1:14 who said of Jesus Christ, "He was full of grace."
The wondrous fact of His being full of grace was followed in John's gospel by an even more
thrilling reality, "For of His fullness have all we received and grace upon grace."
It is basic to say God is a God of grace, that God is gracious, that Christ is gracious,
being full of grace and bestowing that fullness on us, grace upon grace, or grace after grace
after grace after grace.
As long as we live and it will be forever, as long as we live in the realm of grace and
salvation, we will accumulate grace upon grace upon grace upon grace forever.
Luke said about the early Christians that they were experiencing abundant grace, Acts
4:33.
Paul informs us in Romans 5:2 that we all stand in grace.
We live in the environment of grace.
It's the atmosphere that we breathe spiritually.
And in Romans 5:17 he adds that God bestows upon us as we stand in the realm of grace
an abundance of grace.
No matter what you might think of that grace, no matter how great you think it is, no matter
how grand you think it is, no matter how lavish you think it is, no matter how superabundant
you think it is, James adds, "He gives a greater grace."
It is greater than you think, it is greater than you can comprehend.
Peter chimes in, not wanting to be left out, and in 1 Peter 4:10 he says, "We have all
received...what he calls...the manifold, or multi-faceted, or multi-colored grace of God."
It is lavish.
It is rich.
It is unending and God's supply is undiminished and He gives it to us in such a way as to
be defined by grace upon grace, upon grace, upon grace, manifold and multi-faceted.
God is not stingy when He gives out His grace, He is lavish.
He delights to give us abundant grace, it brings Him joy, it brings Him satisfaction
and it brings Him honor and worship and praise from those who are the recipients of that
grace.
And when you think about the grace of God, typically, you probably think about the grace
of God related to salvation.
But that's a very limited view.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 8, this is what Paul writes: "And God is able to make
all grace abound to you," all grace, meaning stretching across all categories.
It's not just saving grace.
Of course it all fits into the realm of saving grace, but it can be more narrowly defined.
God is able to make all grace abound to you.
Again, the language is always extravagant when it comes to grace.
"So that always you will have all sufficiency in all things."
In fact, you will have an abundance for every good deed.
This pulls all the superlatives together.
God gives all grace, God makes all grace abound so that you always have all sufficiency for
all things and an abundance for all good deeds.
This is lavish grace.
This is profuse grace.
We're given grace to repent, we're given grace to believe, grace to be saved.
We are given grace to understand the Word of God.
We're given grace to wisely apply the Word of God.
We're given grace to overcome sin.
We're given grace to defeat temptation.
We're given grace to endure suffering, disappointment, pain.
We're given grace to obey the Lord.
We're given grace to serve Him.
We're given grace to use our spiritual gifts which are gifts of grace.
This Paul calls in 2 Corinthians 9:14, the surpassing grace of God that operates in you.
What an amazing gift God has given us in this grace.
And it is always grace which means it is not the result of our own efforts and earning.
Job was correct when he said, "Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward."
Life is trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble.
You need grace.
Even as a believer you need grace for every issue in life.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Our sufficiency is from God."
That's true.
God is the only sufficient source of power that can come to our aid in every single situation
we will ever face in life and He does that by dispensing grace.
We all know that life is filled with trouble, life is filled with disaster.
And if we're not in the disaster, we're on the edge of it.
Life is filled with strong temptation.
Life is filled with attractions to sinful things.
Life is filled with struggles to cope with the disappointments and the pain and the suffering
that comes into all of our experience.
Life is filled with all of these things, including our efforts at evangelism, our efforts at
Christian ministry that are often met with resistance and lack of understanding, lack
of interest.
We live in a fallen, decadent, corrupt world and we live in fallen, decadent, corrupt flesh.
So we face incessant trouble, even in endeavoring to serve the Lord.
We need grace for everything.
The question is, is such grace available?
Is there a source of sufficient grace to help us in every situation?
You know, there are some benefits to being old.
There really are.
One of the benefits to being old is you've been around long enough to see the right things
die.
And one of the things that I've been so pleased to see disappear is the encroachment on the
church from the realm of human psychology.
It wasn't too many years ago when the church was being consistently being told and was
buying into the lie that if you really wanted to solve your problems, you needed the help
of psychology and psychiatry.
This was...this was a massive invasion into the life of the church.
I've lived long enough to see it fade away.
It was a dry well.
It was bankrupt.
It was unnecessary.
It is fast proving to be so not only inside the church but even outside the church.
It's not necessary to use human ingenuity, human methodology, and human technique to
change God's people.
God does that by means of His Spirit and grace.
And you can't change the people who aren't God's people because psychology can't do a
heart transplant in the spiritual realm.
But for many years the church bought into the lie that the problems of Christians are
beyond the realm of the spiritual and call for psychological techniques that have been
developed for decades.
Thankfully that all has gone away, tucked its tail and stolen off into the night.
And we come back to the great reality of 2 Corinthians 3:5, "Our sufficiency for everything
is from God."
Everything comes to us from God.
Everything comes to us by grace.
That's why whenever you go to God to pray, you're going to what the Bible calls, the
book of Hebrews, the throne of grace.
You can't ever go to God and say, "I'm going through a problem, give me, God, give me deliverance
because I've earned it.
I'm ill, I'm struggling, I have a disease.
God, take it away because I deserve to have it taken away.
Lord, look, bless my ministry, may it have a great impact, may I be highly honored and
revered by all who hear me because I deserve it."
That's just absolutely bizarre.
When you come to ask the Lord for anything, you come always to a throne of grace where
God pours out benefits and blessings and people who don't deserve them.
But it is, nonetheless, the place of power.
Now with that in mind, let's go back to the text.
And I want to help you to understand what's in this text and there is a lot here...a lot.
This is, I think, one of the most potent texts in the whole New Testament.
This entire section from chapter 10 to chapter 13 in this epistle may be the most emotionally
charged section in all the writings of the great Apostle Paul.
It is powerful stuff.
It is penetrating.
It is personal.
It is filled with passion.
It is heart-wrenching because in 2 Corinthians chapters 10 to 13, he lays his heart open,
wide open.
He is in the middle of being assaulted and attacked in the very domain where he had sacrificially
given his life and preached the gospel.
His integrity has been called into question by his enemies.
His loyalty has been attacked.
His ability to lead has been demeaned.
His decisions have been questioned.
He has been accused of having a secret life of shame, of lying about his apostolic credentials,
of lying and falsifying the record of his ministry.
His love is doubted and even denied.
He is being reinvented in some kind of revisionist history being conducted in Corinth by false
teachers so that he is emerging as an anti-hero, a bad guy, a hypocrite, a deceiver.
This on top of all the other things he suffered.
Go back to chapter 11 and let's get a running start on this text.
He says in verse 23, "Are they servants of Christ?"
Talking about his accusers who claim to be the true prophets of God and are accusing
him of being a false prophet, false apostle.
"Are they servants of Christ?
I speak as if insane," I'm making this concession for the sake of argument.
"Let's compare credentials.
Are they apostles of Christ?
Are they servants of Christ?
Slaves of Christ?
I more so.
Here's my proof.
In far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger
of death, five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes, three times I was beaten with rods,
once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I spent in the deep.
I have been on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, robbers, countrymen, Gentiles,
in the city, in the wilderness, on the sea and among false brethren.
I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst
often without food in cold and exposure.
And apart or beyond and above, more painful than all of that, that's external, is the
internal pain, the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches.
Who is weak without my being weak?
Who is led into sin without my intense concern?"
He knows the terrible, terrible heart-wrenching experience of his people in whom he has made
such a great investment, falling into weakness and sin.
So he has the external suffering all through his life, he has the internal suffering of
people that he's invested in defecting and showing up sinful.
He knew about suffering.
He knew about shipwrecks, floggings, beatings with rods, narrow escapes for his life, terrors
of all kind, pain in stocks, in prison, filthy stinking jails with foul food, torture, all
of it.
And he knew what agonies were basically part of being connected to people.
It was intrinsic in your life if you invested in people that they would disappoint you,
reject you, fail, wound you, betray you, misunderstand you and even turn on you.
All of which the Corinthians have done.
Now I think this takes us to the deepest point of pain in Paul's life.
And it really comes out in this whole letter.
He even says in chapter 7 that he was depressed.
He had reached a point of personal depression, so depressed was he, he says in chapter 2,
that when a door was open to preach the gospel in Troas, he had no heart for it and no interest
in it even though the Lord had opened the door because he was just too broken hearted.
People had finally broken him, he was crushed...he was crushed.
You can take a lot of shipwrecks.
You can take a lot of beatings.
You can take a lot of scourging.
You can take a lot of danger.
The severest pain comes from what people do to you and especially the people in whom you've
made the greatest investment of your life.
The deepest pain, the greatest trouble in human experience, apart from your own personal
sin and personal guilt is the pain that is inflicted on you by other people.
Read the biography of Jonathan Edwards, maybe the greatest mind in the history of America.
Pastoring twenty years in North Hampton, and for 20 years of the most erudite, profound,
God-honoring preaching, his congregation voted him out as pastor.
They voted him out, they turned on him.
Why?
Because he insisted that before you take the Lord's table, you should have made a public
confession of faith in Christ.
Not exactly a fringe doctrine.
After 20 years of the Great Awakening, the greatest revival in American history, twenty
years of profound preaching, they turned on him.
They not only threw him out of the church, they did everything they could to destroy
his reputation so that no other church would take him.
And he wound up for a brief time ministering with fifteen Indians way beneath his capability,
but he ministered to them faithfully and humbly.
Finally the College of New Jersey called, tried to pull him out of the pit that he was
in and invited him to come and be the president, the College of New Jersey eventually became
Princeton University.
He denied them his presence at first, saying that it was too great a task for one such
as him.
Eventually he agreed to go, went, was there a brief time and died.
And you ask, how could people do that to Jonathan Edwards?
Hey, I remember many years ago and I'm nobody, walking into my office up there one day and
I had a staff of five men that I had invested my life in and I walked in and said, "I want
to tell you how much I love you and how grateful I am that you minister alongside of me."
To which one of them said, "If you think we're your friends, you've got another think coming."
And the mutiny was on.
They had a plan to remove me from this church.
By the grace of God that never came to fruition.
It shocked me.
It jolted me.
I couldn't comprehend how it could happen.
I went one time to preach at the Moody Bible Institute, founders week, seats four thousand
and it's always full and it's a great opportunity to preach there.
And as I was coming up to the Moody Church and it was dark at night, it's always in the
winter and it's cold and dark.
I was brought in from a car...by a car down at the Holiday Inn where I was staying and
came up to the front, got out with a borrowed overcoat and made my way toward the great
Moody church for this great event.
And a man handed me a piece of paper and he was handing paper...there were people all
around passing out these sheets of paper to everyone who came in, about four thousand-plus
people.
When I got into the light, I looked at it and it basically...the title of it was, "The
Heresies of John MacArthur," and it was single spaced because I have a lot of heresies, single-spaced
on both sides.
And, of course, by the time I got in there, everyone was reading all my heresies.
It made for a very volatile and interesting evening.
I went on to preach the Word of God without commenting on it, only later to find out that
this was all printed up and distributed by a man, a father, of a young man to whom I
had given a scholarship to the Master's College.
You scratch your head and you say, "So that's the gratitude you get?"
Look, you learn not to expect too much and then you're not really too disappointed in
life.
It's not easy.
Look at the Apostle Paul who stands head and shoulders far above us and ask how a congregation
of people could be brought to faith in Jesus Christ, taught, instructed, nurtured by this
man, and then turn on him?
They did.
There's no external punishment.
There's no persecution.
That is as painful as rejection, false accusation, misrepresentation, betrayal by the people
who are the ones in whom you've invested the most.
It's a Judas kind of thing, isn't it?
Betrayed by your own friends.
The wounding of our souls by other people exceeds the wounding of our bodies.
And so, we come to Paul in chapter 12 at the deepest point, I think, of his trouble.
This is the worst time for him.
He is feeling the greatest attack, the most violent assault, the deepest pain of his ministry.
He's suffering through rejection by the Corinthian church.
He is unloved by many in that church.
He is unappreciated.
He is not trusted.
His ministry is maligned.
His affection is unrequited.
His integrity is questioned.
His fruitfulness denied.
His honesty is regaled.
His sacrificial service rejected.
His credentials scoffed at.
And his authority disregarded.
And all of this was being led by some false teachers who had come in to the Corinthian
church and done everything they could to destroy people's confidence in him.
They said things about him, he's unimpressive, his speech is contemptible.
They said he is below the acceptable level of those who speak publicly.
They mocked him, this dear, sacrificial, humble, selfless Apostle who had already been battered
and beaten physically and emotionally as well.
Given almost two years of his life to this church and this is the gratitude that he gets?
And when you pour your life into people and when you make this level of investment in
people's lives and they turn on you, when you've been unselfish, when you've been sacrificial
and you get hatred in return and betrayal in return, it is a kind of pain for which
there is little balm in this life.
The wounds are too deep.
No stocks that he was ever in were this painful.
That's how we find him when we come to this text.
And he's dealing with this issue.
As we approach this text, here's what I want you to see.
How Paul dealt with the deepest pain of his own ministry...the deepest trouble of his
life because how he did it is how we can do it as well.
I don't know where your pain is coming from, but we all have those physical things that
come upon us, but I am sure the deepest most wrenching pain in your life comes in relationships,
it comes because people disappoint you, people turn on you, people reject you, people don't
return your life, people misrepresent you, lie about you, gossip about you, give false
reports about you, turn on you, try to undermine you.
That's where Paul was.
How are we to approach the deepest pain of life, the pain inflicted on us by people,
especially those we care about?
I'm going to give you some lessons you can learn from Paul.
Lesson number one, God uses suffering at its deepest level to humble His children.
He uses suffering at its deepest level to humble His children.
Verse 7, "And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep
me from exalting myself there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to buffet me, to keep me from exalting myself."
Twice he says it.
God's purpose in this is to humble me.
He had surpassing revelations.
What does this mean?
Is he talking about the revelation of the gospel that was given to him after his conversion
of which he speaks in Galatians chapter 1?
Is that what he's talking about?
No.
Certainly he did receive the revelation of the gospel given to him by God directly, not
through any other teacher after his conversion.
He spent fourteen years in Nabatea and Arabia, having that revelation refined and confirmed
to him.
Then he came forth, exposed himself to the Apostles and went on to preach to the Gentiles.
We remember reading that.
He also had thirteen revelations that make up the thirteen epistles of the New Testament
that he wrote.
But it is not those of which he speaks.
These are surpassingly great revelations.
These are revelations that are unique and uncommon and absolutely extraordinary.
And, in fact, the Apostle Paul had personal appearances of Jesus Christ in his life on
four occasions.
Wow!
Plus, one trip to heaven.
Go back to verse 1 of chapter 12.
"Boasting is necessary although it's not profitable."
He says I hate being put in this position.
You are forcing me to defend myself by your attacks.
You are forcing me to defend my credentials by your assaults.
The false teachers were forcing Paul to defend himself.
He had to defend himself not for his own sake but he had to defend himself as the true Apostle
of Christ, the true representative of the Word of God because if the people turned from
him to the false prophets, they would be turning from the truth to lies.
And so for their sake he defends himself though he hates to do it.
He says, "But let me go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
I know a man...he's referring to himself...in Christ who fourteen years ago," and we don't
have any indication in the book of Acts as to what this occasion was, all we know is
what he says here.
We don't know when he happened, but it was fourteen years before this.
"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago whether in the body, I don't know, or
out of the body, I do not know, God knows, such a man was caught up to the third heaven."
Wow!
There were four personal appearances to him in his life by Jesus Christ.
The first one on the road to Damascus.
There were three after that.
One of them in particular happened in Corinth when he went there originally to preach the
gospel.
It's recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Acts verses 9 and 10.
Another one of them happened when he was in prison.
He says, "I actually was caught up to the third heaven," that's the heaven where God
lives.
The first heaven is the heaven of the air we breathe.
The second is the stellar heaven in a simple sense.
And the third heaven is the domain of God where God lives.
I was caught up to the third heaven and I know how such a man whether in the body or
apart from the body," for the second time he says it, "I don't know, I can't define
it, don't ask me the details, I don't know whether it was physical or spiritual, I don't
know that.
I know I was caught up into paradise and I heard inexpressible words which a man is not
permitted to speak."
Don't ask me what I heard because I couldn't understand it and it's not for human proclamation,
I went to heaven, that's all I know.
This is not repeatable.
This is not verifiable.
This is not defensible.
So it's really not helpful for me to talk about it, I'll just leave it at that.
Suffice it to say, if you're wondering whether I have a special relationship to God or not,
I'm just going to tell you, I've been to the third heaven.
Wow!
That could give you some leverage, couldn't it?
Whew...you're in a committee meeting with Timothy and Titus and Timothy says, "I've
got a great idea for an evangelistic strategy."
Titus says, "Hey, I've got a great idea for an evangelistic strategy too."
And Paul says, "I don't think either of those will work, here is what I feel we need to
do."
And Timothy and Titus say, "Hey, we think you're wrong," to which Paul replies, "Really.
Either of you been to heaven?"
It's a lot of leverage...a lot of leverage.
You could even become so proud that that would become your trademark.
You would bill yourself as the man whose been to heaven and back.
Oh how many false testimonies to that effect have paraded themselves through the Charismatic
Movement.
People have been to heaven and back, been to hell and back, none of which, of course,
is true.
This is.
And when you have had the revelation that he had, the revelation of the gospel after
his conversion, the revelation of the epistles that the Lord was in the process of giving
him in the New Testament, more importantly the four personal appearances of Jesus who
came to you individually, not that you were in a room when He showed up but it was only
you and Him.
And then you had your own private trip to heaven.
That could make you proud, could it not?
"For this reason...he says...to keep me from exalting myself."
God wants His servants humble...humble.
Humility is the number one Christian virtue.
It's so hard to achieve.
I remember a young seminary student said to me, one time, "Dr.
MacArthur, how did you finally overcome pride?"
"Oh," I said, "it happened years ago.
I haven't worried about that for a long, long time."
That's a naive question, isn't it?
How do I...I have to deal with pride just like you every day.
Paul can't even imagine what a temptation to his flesh all these revelations, personal
appearances of Jesus, trip to heaven, humility is what God seeks.
So, let's go back to the text.
"Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep me from
exalting myself, there was given me."
Now stop right there for a moment.
The object here is the thorn in the flesh.
The verb is "there was given."
The subject is implied and the subject is God.
"There was given me by God because only God is concerned about my humility.
Satan would like me to be...what?...proud and the prouder the better."
What defines Satan himself is pride, is that not true?
Was not he lifted up as the anointed cherub?
And did not he say, "I will, I will, I will, I will, I will," five times as the Old Testament
prophets said?
And it was his self-will and pride that got him thrown out of heaven.
"There was given me by God a gift...if you will...to humble me."
By the way, it was a gift unsolicited.
Paul didn't ask for it and when it came he didn't want it.
In fact, he wanted to get rid of it.
It is a gift that Satan wouldn't want him to have since it produced humility, not pride.
What was this that God gave him?
Look at it.
"It was given me a thorn in the flesh."
And when you read the word "thorn" I know exactly what you think of, a rose bush...right?
Exactly what you think of, this little tiny needle that sticks you in the finger when
you're trying to cut the roses for the dining room table.
That's not the idea.
The Greek word here for thorn is stake...stake, a shaft of wood sharpened at one end to be
used in battle to impale someone...a sharpened wooden shaft to impale someone.
This is not a minor little oops, look what happened to me.
This is a stake to be driven through someone.
There was given a stake for the flesh...for the flesh, to control
the fleshly tendency to be proud, to control the fleshly tendency to boast.
The Lord is going to humble him by driving a stake right through his otherwise proud
flesh.
What is the stake?
What is this thorn?
He tells you what it is...a messenger of Satan.
That's not a further adjectival description, that's the substantive statement.
What is the thorn in the flesh?
That's the metaphor, that's the symbol, the reality is a messenger of Satan.
It's simple to understand this.
What is a messenger of Satan?
The word messenger is angelos, angel...angel, always means a person...always means a person...either
a human or an angel.
It can be a human messenger, can be an angel if it's intended in the context.
So, the Lord gave Paul to drive a stake through his otherwise proud flesh, a satanic angel.
What's another name for a satanic angel?
Demon.
You say, "Wait a minute, you telling me Paul was demon-possessed?"
Not hardly.
No.
Well what in the world is he saying here?
The explanation of this, the one that makes sense in the context is pretty simple.
False teachers had invaded the Corinthian church.
They were a huge part of his life.
Only in Ephesus had he spent more time than he spent in Corinth.
That it is to the Corinthians that he writes these two long letters because they occupy
so much of his mind and heart.
And there are two other letters, one before 1 Corinthians and one between 1 and 2 Corinthians
that he also wrote and refers to that are not in the Scripture, four letters nearly
two years massive occupation of his mind and his heart.
It is into that church that he loved and which he invested so much of his soul that false
teachers have come and false teachers are always led by demons because they always advocate,
1 Timothy 4, doctrines of demons.
They are the hypocritical liars who spout demon doctrine.
I think what Paul is talking about here is the demonic leadership of the Corinthian false
preachers.
Go back to chapter 11 for a moment.
In verse 13 he identifies them.
He says they are false apostles, they are deceitful workers, disguising themselves as
apostles of Christ and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light,
therefore it's not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as serpents of righteousness
whose end shall be according to their deeds.
False teachers always represent Satan.
They are disguised as angels of light.
They are, however, motivated by, driven by Satan and demons.
The ringleaders of the Corinthian conspiracy against the Apostle Paul, the attempt to undermine
the church and undermine the gospel in that needy city was being led by a demon.
But the work of the demon in the Corinthian church was killing Paul's pride.
Now if you're a minister of a church and a pastor of a church and you've made this great
investment, you want to be able to say, "Look, I gave my life, I gave almost two years there,
all the thought since then, all the prayer, all of the anxiety, the letters, the correspondence,
the agony in waiting when I send Titus with a letter waiting for him to come back and
give me a report, all of the experiences that were tied up with that Corinthian group from
the time first ever he went there and preached the gospel, all of that was important to Paul
because he didn't want to labor in vain.
In fact, he expresses this fear in this very letter.
At the end of chapter 12, verse 20 he says, "I'm afraid that perhaps when I come I may
find you to be not what I wish."
How sad.
"And you'll find me not to be what you wish either.
I'm afraid I'm going to come and find strife and jealousy and angry tempers and disputes
and slanders and gossip and arrogance and disturbances."
That's heart-breaking to one whose invested so much.
Verse 21, "I'm afraid that when I come, again my God may humiliate me before you and that
I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity
and immorality and sensuality which they've practiced."
Wow, you're really cutting in to his heart.
He's afraid that he's going to come back and find sins of disunity and find sins of impurity.
In fact, it was such a deep-seeded fear that he didn't even want to go there.
He says in chapter 2, "I'm afraid to come, I don't know if I can take the sorrow."
If you've poured your whole life into people, you don't want to look back and say, "It was
all for naught, it was all for nothing, it was all in vain."
And to have these demonized false teachers come in and wreak havoc in your church, drives
a stake through your otherwise proud flesh.
It's a humbling thing.
It's a humbling thing.
But do you know what?
Think of it.
The Lord is so concerned that His servants be humble that if need be He will turn a demon
loose in their church.
Wow.
That's what makes chasing demons so foolish.
People do that today.
They tell Satan to leave their church.
Really, how do you know God didn't send them?
Furthermore, what makes you think you can tell him what to do and he'll do it?
You mean to tell me that the humbling of a servant of God like Paul is so important to
God that He would allow demonized false teachers to disrupt for a period of time the ministry
of that church for no other reason than to humble that man?
The answer to that question is, Paul was not finished serving the Lord, there was much
work that needed to be done and it needed to be done by a man who was humble...who was
humble.
And God always gives grace to the humble.
"So, there was given me by God a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet
me."
That's a strange English word, isn't it?
Same as buffet...big difference.
How did they ever put those together?
Unless you overdo the buffet and become buffeted by it, I suppose.
But buffet is an interesting word.
I don't know what that word conjures to you, just the idea of buff sounds kind of soft,
doesn't it?
Like puff.
It would be better, instead of using buffet, buffet me, it might be lash me, or shattered
me, or devastated me.
But the word actually in the Greek means torment...torment in a very physical way.
The word is used in Matthew 26:67, it's used in Mark 14:65 of the soldiers beating Christ
in the face with their fists.
This thing that's going on in my beloved church in Corinth is crushing me, it's driving a
stake through my otherwise proud flesh, it's like taking blows in my face.
Paul uses the same word, 1 Corinthians 4:11, to speak of being physically abused.
There's a stake being driven through his otherwise proud flesh.
It's as if God has allowed the enemy to smash him in the face.
And by the way, the word in its root is derived from a Greek term meaning knuckles, the hardest
part of the hand that can deliver the most devastating blow.
Why?
Why does God allow this?
"To keep me from exalting myself."
It has a humbling purpose.
And, beloved, I need to tell you this because this is what Paul is saying.
That's the first place you always go when you come into the midst of a trial.
Trials have many, many purposes....many.
Before you think about running to fix it, before you blame God for letting things deteriorate
to this level, understand this that if you want to share His holiness, you must share
His suffering.
That the path of spiritual maturity is the path to humility and the way to humility is
paved by suffering.
Sure trials have all kinds of purposes.
They test our strength, they wean us from worldly things, they enliven our eternal hope
of heaven.
They reveal what we really love.
They teach us to value the good times.
They enable us to help others who suffer.
They produce endurance.
But mainly, trials humble us...they humble us.
And God wants His people humble to the degree that God would even allow Satan to torment
His children if it assisted in their humiliation.
It's Peter...we're going to get to that in Luke 22...Jesus says to Peter, "Satan desires
to have you that he might sift you like wheat."
If I was Peter, "Well You told him no, right?"
The Lord says, "No, I told him yes because when you're converted you're going to be a
different man."
The Lord let Satan go after Job.
The Lord let Satan go after Peter.
And the Lord let a messenger of Satan go after Paul, in the end, to humble that man to make
him even more useful.
You know, when we get into trouble, the first thing we want to do is get out as fast as
possible.
You want to run to somebody to fix it.
Run to the pastor, get some quick counsel.
You know, run to the bookstore, get a book on how do I get out of this, right?
How to solve all my problems, how to eliminate trouble from my life.
Turn on one of those TV prosperity preachers and start thinking good thoughts and maybe
you could create a good world in your imagination.
Instead of doing that, bless God for what humbles you.
Bless God for what humbles you.
And know that He gives grace to the humble.
Well, that's one point.
There are many more for next time.
Lord, what a wonderful evening we have shared tonight, singing simple songs of praise and
thanks and hearing again testimonies of Your power, fellowshiping, giving.
And again the Word being open to us produces such blessing.
Whatever it takes, Lord, to humble us, do it.
Whatever it takes to humble me, do it.
Whatever suffering is necessary, bring it on.
Whatever disappointment is necessary, let it happen in order that sufficient grace may
be displayed and power perfected in weakness.
We embrace the suffering, we embrace the humbling, just as Paul did.
We know that our good is Your goal and part of getting us to that place where we honor
You, living righteously is pouring us through the crucible of suffering that we not be crushed
and broken and disappointed at the most intimate level.
We've all been wounded by the ones we love the most.
We've all been hurt deeply by the ones in whom we have invested the most defection and
the most concern and the most effort.
And we would see it as a bad thing and yet we now have a different view.
Even the worst imaginable thing, demons as it were, running loose trying to undo our
efforts could be from You as You humble us for greater usefulness.
Satan is Your devil, he's Your Satan, he only does what You let him do.
No demon can step one step out of the realm of sovereign will, they can only do what You
let them do.
And even the demons serve Your purposes, sometimes for the humbling of Your people.
We have been singularly blessed here in this church.
We have had, as it were, in some sense, many revelations, exposed to so much truth, so
much blessing.
We could easily be proud, we need to be humbled.
Humblest us all, whatever it takes, that we might be more useful to You, that we might
be delivered from the disabling power of pride.
And we'll thank You in the Savior's name, who humbled Himself and we want to follow
His example.
Amen.
For more infomation >> Sufficient Grace for Humbling Circumstances, Part 1 (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) - Duration: 1:00:39.-------------------------------------------
STRUGGLES DURING MY DIETETIC INTERNSHIP - Duration: 6:44.
I didn't fully grasp it ,c hew it up,
swallow it, digest and assimilate it into my being
(MUSIC)
So hi everyone. Welcome back to my channel so today we're going to be
speaking about a few things that I did
not learn during my dietetic internship!
So I don't know if this is true for
every dietitian, but a few dietitians I
have met we also same thing. There are
few things that we did not learn during
our dietetic internship. So let's not
waste any time and get right into it. Let
me just first start by saying this is
not to throw shade at any dietetic
internship at any dietitian. No, that is
that the whole entire point of making
this video, but there are some things
that I feel that you do not actually
learn until you're in the field and what
I mean by learn like yes, it's reviewed,
but you don't fully grasp it. I know for
me the type of learner that I am I'm
someone that needs to see the same thing
over and over and over again so that I
can take it, assimilate it, and it become
a part of me. The first thing that I did not learn
was to actually learn how to listen! Let
me be honest with you when I was doing
my out patient diabetes internship the
dietitian did say to me "Kim you need to
read in between the lines." Silence is not
bad a lot of people you know when you're
speaking, especially someone that you
don't know, you try to fill up the
silence with your speech and that's what
I was trying to do in my outpatient
diabetes education. So I have learned
just to do this (SIT IN SILENCE) and have the client
that I'm dealing with talk and talk. You're
able to pick up certain things as they talk.
Active listening is something
that I did not learn during my dietetic internship.
The second thing and I did not
learn in my internship was actually how
to calculate TPN= total parenteral
nutrition, as well as tube feeds. Now during
that rotation I did have a certified
nutrition
support dietitian. She was as smart as a
whip! I will be like, let's let's give her
a name, I don't want to say her name um
Sue! "Sue so slow down, you're losing me." and
then Sue would be like : "Okay, all right
let's do this again let's take it from
the top Bam Bam Bam Bam." And to be honest
with you, it didn't make sense to me at all!
Because again, I think that rotation was
only 2 weeks and I had to learn TPNs
and tube feedings at the same time. We
had the computer there you just plug in
your numbers and it gave you everything,
but she wanted us to do it (the calculations) by with my hand and
I did not know how to do my hand until I
actually became a dietitian. I didn't
fully grasp it chew it up, swallow it,
digest and assimilate it into my being.
So I didn't understand that clinical.
When I actually started working like "OH!
this is what Sue meant; oh this is easy." I
would pull out my calculator I'm like "oh
ok Bam Bam Bam Bam". Tube feeding rates
going to be 50 and you're going to flush
with 150 ml of water every six hours and
they're going to titrate up by 10
milliliters every six to eight hours for
tolerance until the max goal rate of dadada
that is reached. So I was pretty
confident when I actually started
working and this is something that helped
me my R.D. exam because I actually started
working before I actually took my
R.D. exam I was R.D. eligible. TPNs
the same thing! The doctor would say "Oh Kim
I'm starting a patient on a TPN of
sixty four millimeters
and have fifty percent dextrose and
ten percent aminosyn with twenty
percentages lipids every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday. How many calories and protein does
this provide?" If you had asked me that as
a dietetic intern... I would have been like
"REALLY??", but now I know how to do it by
hand. Third thing that I did not know how
to do his paper chart. 'Kim what do you
mean my paper chart?' During my internship
everything was electronical. All your
charting with computerized. Now where I'm
working we do not have a computer-based
charting system. Everything is done with
your hands and with a pen. Not a blue pen
I use a black pen. When you used to typing and
then when you actually have to take the
pen top off and then search through the
chart and just start writing: CARPAL
TUNNEL. (Laughing) I don't have carpal tunnel, but
I'll be honest with you, there are a few
times I thought I had carpal tunnel
based on how my hand was cramping up. Imagine seeing 20 to 25 patients a day and
you're just documenting, your documenting,
your documenting. I did not know how to
paper chart and also with the whole
entire paper charting this has helped me
to learn how to figure out my TPNs and my
tube feedings by hand. Another thing that I
did not learn, it never dawned on me how
important the interdisciplinary team is.
Having your physical therapist, having
your pharmacist, having your social
worker, having your nurse, having your
doctor and rounding with them on a daily
basis. Patient-centered care how
important that is. We do do that during
my internship and I just thought well
"okay?!" Like it didn't click, this up here
it wasn't clicking until I actually
started working in the field and I
realized how each of us even though
we're different disciplines, how it all
becomes integrated
when you're dealing with a patient. So
guys, these are just a few things that I
did not learn during my dietetic
internship. I actually learned it in the
real world, in the workforce. So thank
you guys for watching any dietitians out
there please tell me below what you did
not learn during your internship what
you actually learned being a registered
and licensed dietitian. For any student
out there, anyone finishing their
internship, anyone planning on going into
the field of nutrition and dietetics, if
you have any questions don't hesitate to
leave them below. As usual remember to
subscribe. Thank you guys for watching
B-Y-E!
(MUSIC)
-------------------------------------------
Jim McHugh - Hall of Fame - Duration: 2:30.
The track team was really just a big family.
Brothers and sisters and the coaches are your parents, keeping you in line.
We would travel together, spend close to 40 hours a week together.
The track team was very large.
I think we had about 40 guys and the same amount of women.
We'd travel to meets with 60 or 70 athletes.
We'd bring to a national meet, we brought probably 15 guys and 15 girls.
Yeah, my relationship with Coach Lumberg was really strong.
He recruited me to Hillsdale, but he's a distance coach, cross country coach.
We have a field events coach who was going to be my coach, it's Coach Teft.
He's really the one who was able to mold me into the athlete that I became.
We spent a lot of time together, but there's a lot of trust that has to happen.
I trust what they're doing.
Thank goodness Coach Teft had a lot of experience.
He would give me all the advice that I needed to change my workouts or keep them the same
or change my steps.
It was a great working relationship, because these guys are so easy to get to know, easy
to work with and they just love everyone they work with, as long as you're willing to put
in the work and the time.
The success that I had as a collegiate athlete was coupled with failures as well.
The failures that I had were mostly during the season trying different things, but it
was an experiment that Coach Teft and I and Coach Lundberg were working to figure out,
what was going to be the best to prepare me for the big dance, which is the Nationals.
In my freshman year, I was fifth in the country in the high-jump.
I have eight times as an All American, I feel like I represent the teams of the early '90's.
We had a great string from '91, '92, '93, '94.
We lost the first year of the GLIAC championship, but we never lost after that.
I represent Coach Teft, Coach Lundberg, Coach Martha, and I'm just the guy who gets to get
inducted for the Hall of Fame for them.
I just feel like I'm their representative.
-------------------------------------------
REGU - CLUES (OFFICIAL AUDIO) - Duration: 3:09.
For more infomation >> REGU - CLUES (OFFICIAL AUDIO) - Duration: 3:09. -------------------------------------------
(YTP) King & Mick's Bready Adventure [Feat. a lot of people] - Duration: 13:38.
For more infomation >> (YTP) King & Mick's Bready Adventure [Feat. a lot of people] - Duration: 13:38. -------------------------------------------
Buenas noticias para Chivas: 'La Chofis' López y Alan Pulido están recuperados - Duration: 0:46.
For more infomation >> Buenas noticias para Chivas: 'La Chofis' López y Alan Pulido están recuperados - Duration: 0:46. -------------------------------------------
El 'Conejo' Pérez contó otro secreto sobre su eternidad: "Estoy nadando mucho" - Duration: 2:37.
For more infomation >> El 'Conejo' Pérez contó otro secreto sobre su eternidad: "Estoy nadando mucho" - Duration: 2:37. -------------------------------------------
Riverdale 1x08 Sneak Peek #2 "The Outsiders" (HD) Season 1 Episode 8 Sneak Peek #2 - Duration: 0:44.
Pretty handy with that wheelbarrow, Archie.
You know if the whole music thing doesn't pan out,
you can always have manual labor as a fallback.
Don't even joke, I did this all Summer long, remember?
My dad loves this kind of work.
And I love him, but...
I know, I know. You dad's path is not for you.
Trust me, I get it.
He works his ass off for me, bro.
Never asks for anything, always has my back, even when I mess up.
So if having his back means I gotta haul some rocks, then bring it on.
Agreed.
My dad's got my back too... More than some people.
Exactly.
Riverdale, all-new tonight at 9/8c on The CW.
-------------------------------------------
Do You Know Why We're Censored Because 'Someone Might Get the Wr - Duration: 5:59.
Do You Know Why We're Censored? Because 'Someone Might Get the Wrong Idea'
Recently, I was a guest on a radio show. At one point, I cited a mainstream journal review
I have mentioned many times � the famous 2000 Journal of the American Medical Association
revelation by Dr. Barbara Starfield, which concluded that the US medical system kills
225,000 people a year in the US.
The interviewer asked whether mentioning this could dangerously convince people not to go
to a doctor, when they should see a doctor.
I hadn�t heard that gem in a long time.
� Maybe you shouldn�t talk about this, because it could give people the wrong idea
�
I said people could get the wrong idea from many statements.
Getting the wrong idea is a chronic condition. It pops up all the time.
If you refrained from saying something because people might get the wrong idea, you could
decide to say nothing. Ever.
There is no limit to what you could say that someone might interpret in his own peculiar
way.
Further, what happened to the idea that you should speak the truth?
I guess that�s out. Too dangerous.
Of course, in my radio interview, the host was just playing the devil�s advocate. He
was presenting �the other side.� For �balance.� He knew what he was doing.
Actually, I�m glad he made his point. It gave me a chance to talk about people �getting
the wrong idea.�
These days, there is a wider problem. We didn�t get to it on the radio show. People complain
that something you say triggers them. Boom. Their problem becomes your problem.
You uttered the word �girl.� And that initiated their cascade of reaction. Therefore,
you committed a sin.
It�s a form of psychological warfare. You shouldn�t say X because X might trigger
somebody. Welcome to the victim culture. Idiot�s delight.
Here�s another angle. Since the education system doesn�t teach anyone how to think
logically, you shouldn�t speak or write logically. If you did, you would be confusing
and/or offending untold numbers of people. You must cater to them. If you use logic,
you�re an elitist.
And how about this? ELIMINATE TEACHING GRAMMAR BECAUSE GRAMMAR IS RACIST. That�s right.
�An �antiracist� poster in a college writing center insists American grammar is
�racist� and an �unjust language structure,� [and the writing center is] promising to prioritize
rhetoric over �grammatical correctness�.�
�The poster, written by the director, staff, and tutors of the University of Washington,
Tacoma�s Writing Center, states �racism is the normal condition of things,� declaring
that it permeates rules, systems, expectations, in courses, school and society.�
��We promise to emphasize the importance of rhetorical situations [?!] over grammatical
�correctness� in the production of texts,� announces the poster. �We promise to challenge
conventional word choices and writing explanations�.�
Maybe someone can explain why the author of that college proclamation used English grammar
to defame English grammar.
Why didn�t the author write, �Use grammar bad because why tradition and nobody should.�
Much better.
Stop all grammar. It could give people the wrong idea. It could make them think their
own ignorance of the subject reveals �a lack of education.� They could fall into
a funk and think something is wrong with them. They could be triggered.
Here�s a proposal for a university study: seek out and find the one person on the planet
who has the very lowest understanding of logic and grammar, who can�t read a word, who
is triggered by the greatest number of utterances.
Political Correctness � A Rothschild Invention of Language Control
Find that person, and then recommend everyone on the planet adjust their utterances to please
that one person�
So that person won�t get the wrong idea.
Then society will improve.
Then we will reach new heights of share and care.
Then we will be humane.
Then we will bow down to that one person.
She/he will become the standard.
She/he will lead us.
She/he will teach us all, in the fullness of time.
Amen.
When that person dies, we can preserve his/her brain and keep it ticking, as a reference
for future generations:
Utter nothing that might give that brain the wrong idea.
Utter nothing that might make that brain think it is inferior or lacking in any way.
Rather, encourage that brain. Pump it full of messages that confirm its god-like status.
Award it trophies. Feed it photos and video showing sprawling centers built in its name.
Then we can feel secure. Then we can feel safe.
No one will get the wrong idea.
-------------------------------------------
Как Предотвратить Появление Вросших Волос | Gillette Fusion ProShield - Duration: 2:45.
For more infomation >> Как Предотвратить Появление Вросших Волос | Gillette Fusion ProShield - Duration: 2:45. -------------------------------------------
BACK FROM HELL! Hillary Clinton Just Said Something HORRIBLE! Trump HATES This! - Duration: 2:16.
BACK FROM HELL! Hillary Clinton Just Said Something HORRIBLE! Trump HATES This!
By Danny Gold
Apparently, some monsters really CANNOT be kept down.
Hillary Clinton herself rose from the fires of Oblivion today for one simple reason: ATTACK
DONALD TRUMP!
She tried to spread the LIE again that President Trump hates women by claiming he won�t let
women into the top positions in the White House!
Totally nonsense!
She then targeted Press Secretary Sean Spicer, trying to make him seem like a �racist�
and �woman hater� based on more FAKE claims:
�April Ryan, a respected journalist with unrivaled integrity, was doing her job just
this afternoon in the White House press room when she was patronized and cut off trying
to ask a question.�
Just FYI, Spicer did NOTHING wrong to April.
He tried to simply answer her question and she decided to be an ass about it.
Hillary even took it a step further,
�Now too many women, especially women of color, have had a lifetime of practice taking
precisely these kinds of indignities in stride.
But why should we have to?
And any woman who think this couldn�t be directed at her is living in a dream world.�
See?
She is using lies and false equivalencies to try and stoke a rebellion.
It�s time she gets charged for real!
At least she still managed to show her true colors, those of a narcissistic loser, when
she told the crowd,
�There�s nowhere I�d rather be right now other than the White House.�
So pitiful.
Look, in reality, Hillary Clinton is not just a threat to Donald Trump, but to our ENTIRE
country.
That�s why it�s up to us to EXPOSE her �comeback� to the world so they can tell
her how we REALLY feel.
NOBODY LIKES YOU HILLARY, AND WE NEVER WILL!
Share if you want to see her put away
-------------------------------------------
Watch Nunes pretend he wasn't in cahoots with the White House - Duration: 1:21.
I will be going to the White House this afternoon to share what I know with the President and
his team.
The administration I don't think is aware of this, so I want to make sure that I go
over there and tell them what I know.
They need to see it.
If they don't have it, they need to see it.
Today I briefed the president on the concerns that I had.
The president needs to know that these intelligence reports are out there and I have a duty to
tell him that.
This is information that was brought to me that I thought the president needed to know,
and I thought it was important for the president to know this, that's why I briefed the speaker
this morning and I came down here as soon as I could.
I think he'd like to see these reports, and hopefully, hopefully when we get them, hopefully
they'll get them to the White House also.
I would be concerned if I was the president, and that's why I wanted him to know.
And I felt like I had a duty and obligation to tell him because as you know, he's been
taking a lot of heat in the news media.
I don't know why he would brief the speaker and come down here to brief us on something
that we would have briefed him on.
That doesn't really seem to make a ton of sense to me.
It doesn't really pass the smell test.
-------------------------------------------
Police investigate shooting at 38th and Grand Avenue - Duration: 1:19.
>> I WAS JUST LAYING IN THE BED
AND THEN I JUST HEARD ABOUT FOUR
OR FIVE GUNSHOTS, AND THEN I
WANT TO SAY AN HOUR LATER, ALL
THE POLICE JUST FLEW IN.
>> THE SOUND OF GUNFIRE WOKE UP
NEIGHBORS NEAR THE INTERSECTION
OF 38TH AND GRAND EARLY THURSDAY
MORNING, POLICE RUSHED TO THE
SCENE TO FIND A MAN DEAD IN AN
ALLEYWAY NEAR THE GRAND AVENUE
APARTMENTS.
ASIA WARE LIVES IN THE APARTMENT
COMPLEX WITH HER 3-YEAR-OLD SON.
>> WHEN I SAW THE POLICE I WENT
BACK IN THE HOUSE AND ME AND MY
SON, WE GOT DOWN ON THE FLOOR,
BECAUSE OUR WINDOWS IS LEVEL TO
WHERE IF A GUNSHOT CAME THROUGH,
ANYBODY COULD BE HIT.
>> THE SHOOTING STUNNED
NEIGHBORS WHO SAY THIS IS
TYPICALLY A PEACEFUL
NEIGHBORHOOD FILLED WITH
FAMILIES.
>> WE HAVE A LOT OF OLDER
PEOPLE.
IT'S LAID BACK, QUIET.
I MEAN, WE HAVE CHILDREN OUT
HERE, BUT, FOR THE MOST PART, WE
DON'T HAVE TROUBLE, DRAMA OR
NOTHING OVER HERE.
>> AND WHILE NEIGHBORS SAY THEY
DIDN'T KNOW THE VICTIM.
THEY'RE SENDING PRAYERS TO HIS
FAMILY.
>> YOU GOT TO THINK ABOUT
PEOPLE'S FAMILIES.
I MEAN, YOU DON'T KNOW IF THAT
MAN HAD KIDS.
YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT HIS MOTHER.
YOU DON'T KNOW HIS
CIRCUMSTANCES.
I JUST PRAY THAT WHOEVER DID IT,
YOU KNOW, HAVE A CONSCIENCE.
SOMETHING GOT TO CHANGE.
>> MATTHEW RAND, WLKY NEWS.
-------------------------------------------
What Makes a Species a Species? - Duration: 4:42.
Classifying living things is kind of like Pokemon.
It appeals to our instinct to collect and identify.
And the fact that we have a classification system is super useful for scientists.
I mean, it shows how every type of organism we know of is connected to all the others.
We've mapped out all of life in one giant chart.
It's amazing, when you think about it.
But deciding how to classify a new type of organism often isn't simple — especially
when it comes to assigning it a species.
In some cases, it's obvious when two things should be separate species.
A jellyfish is clearly very different from a jaguar.
But the more similar organisms get, the harder it can be to sort them.
There's no one rule that will always tell you whether two organisms should be in the
same species.
So, different taxonomists use different rules in different situations.
The most widespread definition of a species is called the biological species concept, or BSC.
It was popularized by evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr in 1942, and he continued to refine
the idea over the next several decades.
According to the BSC, organisms are part of the same species if they can produce offspring
that can also breed.
If they can't produce fertile offspring, that means they belong to separate species.
The BSC hinges on the idea of reproductive isolation, where something separates two species
to the point that they're just not compatible anymore.
That separation could be time, or geography, or behavior, or physiology.
Alder and Willow flycatchers used to be considered part of the same species, because they meet
up in the wild, they look the same, and it seems like they should be able to breed.
But ornithologists eventually realized that they're totally different species.
They sing different songs to attract mates, so an Alder flycatcher never tries to mate
with a Willow flycatcher.
They're reproductively isolated.
A species is therefore basically a gene pool, one that doesn't overlap with the gene pools
of other species.
That's a good, rigorous scientific definition.
It can be tested and observed in the wild.
But there are lots of cases where it doesn't work — like with microorganisms.
Bacteria, for example, don't reproduce sexually.
They can share genetic material with each other, but that's not part of their reproductive process.
So reproductive isolation is totally irrelevant, and a scientist looking to classify a new
species of bacteria can't rely on the BSC.
Instead, they might look at genetics, at the shape of the microorganisms and the way they
grow, and at their evolutionary relationships to other organisms.
You also can't use the BSC to classify fossils, since you can't exactly observe the mating
behavior of a skeleton preserved in rock.
Sometimes you get unbelievably lucky and two specimens are preserved while they're mating,
but that's way too rare to be definitive about which animals mated with which other ones.
That's why paleontologists usually use morphology, or the physical characteristics of a creature,
to classify it.
Then there's the issue of hybrids, where creatures that should be part of separate
species mate.
When two species hybridize, there are a number of things that can happen.
Often, even if they produce offspring, the offspring are sterile.
That's what happens when you cross a female horse and a male donkey, for example.
The offspring are mules, and mules can't breed.
But sometimes two species can produce fertile offspring.
And biologists have found that animal species hybridize way more often than we used to think.
If the offspring go on to mate with their parental species, that's called introgression.
It provides a means for gene flow between two species, meaning their gene pools aren't
totally isolated.
So, does that mean you have to revoke their status as separate species?
Scientists haven't settled that question yet, but some think the barriers between species
are much leakier than the biological species concept allows.
Sometimes this leakiness can lead to two groups being classified as subspecies within a single species.
Subspecies give you a little wiggle room.
Sometimes organisms overlap geographically, and can share genes.
In cases like these, subspecies means we know they can share genes, it's just that they
usually don't.
Then there are ring species.
In California, for example, there's a species of salamander that lives in overlapping populations
of subspecies on either side of the San Joaquin Valley in a big, elongated ring.
Those subspecies can all interbreed — except for two.
At the southern part of the ring, two subspecies can't interbreed.
So, according to the BSC, those two subspecies should actually be separate species.
But even though they can't interbreed, genes can still flow between them through the other subspecies.
Where does that put them?
You can't answer that question with the BSC.
So, having a hard and fast definition of species that you can test and demonstrate is useful
— like in conservation, when you're looking to protect a species and its habitat.
But the biological species concept isn't an absolute rule that scientists are bound to.
It's a tool, and scientists try to select the best tool for the job.
That might be the BSC, and it might not.
It depends on what you're studying.
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow, which was brought to you by our patrons on Patreon.
If you want to help support this show, just go to patreon.com/scishow.
And don't forget to go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe!
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Zagrajmy w: The Walking Dead Season 3 (A New Frontier) #7 - Episode 3 (Napisy PL / Po Polsku) - Duration: 18:59.
For more infomation >> Zagrajmy w: The Walking Dead Season 3 (A New Frontier) #7 - Episode 3 (Napisy PL / Po Polsku) - Duration: 18:59. -------------------------------------------
The 7 STRANGEST Secret Societies - Duration: 11:00.
The Bilderberg Group, The Freemasons, The Mickey Mouse Club - when it comes to bizarre
and perverse practices, these are the secret societies most people think of almost immediately.
But did you know there are many more hidden groups whose activities and entry requirements
are far stranger and way more interesting than a bunch of guys in business suits?
We've got a group of stoned assassins, some crazy Russian eunuchs, and a bunch of Indian
guys who know how to build flying saucers.
So let's take a look at these weirdos and more in our list of the seven strangest secret
societies.
Number 7: Ordo Templi Orientis Ordo Templi Orientis or Order of the Temple
of the East is a secret religious society which began in a similar fashion to the Freemasons.
But, rather than gathering in lodges and making grand plans to control the world, the members
of the Ordo Templi Orientis are instead content to worship the penis and teach the magic of
self pleasure.
Fair enough, some people want a new world order, others want to fiddle with their bits,
who am I to judge?
Much of the group's lore and philosophy was composed by famed English occultist and Hot
Topic poster-boy Aleister Crowley, with his influence helping to craft Ordo Templi Orientis'
focus on self-improvement through occult ritual.
Although, judging by the requirements of initiation ritual eleven, which implores members to interact
with excrement, blood and mucus to recreate Crowley's dream of giving birth to, and I
quote, "a mass of blood and slime", I'm not sure how improved I'd feel in my self after
that.
Meh, I'll give it a shot anyways.
Number 6: The Hashshashin When you think of the word Hashshashin what
kind of image does it conjure up?
Perhaps some weird group of stoner assassins who Scooby Doo their way from one contract
killing to another?
If so, then you're pretty much bang on.
Also known as the Nizari, the Hashshashin were a mysterious group of 13th Century Muslim
assassins who tried to set up their own country and undertook missions involving espionage,
sabotage and assassination; all the while being stoned out of their minds.
The term Hashshashin vaguely translates as "hashish user" and this is where we derive
the modern term "assassin" from.
But if you think these Middle Eastern, Medieval, Mary Jane loving Muslims were a bunch of bumbling
morons then think again - they were cold hearted killers and nothing less.
Richard the Lionheart was one of their most famous clients, with the Hashshashins performing
many contract hits for him during the Crusades, and it was only the combined might of the
Mongol Hordes which finally put an end to this bizarre group's reign of toke-filled
terror.
Number 5: Ashoka's Nine Unknown Men Formed in 270 BC by Indian King Ashoka of
the Maurya dynasty, this secret society contained only nine men, but was believed by some to
be one of the most powerful groups in the world.
And why?
Well the men involved were chosen based on their expert knowledge of an individual field,
and each was required to compile their expertise into a book, which could then be used to control
and influence the world's population.
These books are rumoured to still exist today, with the information contained within supposedly
updated to reflect our modern world.
The first book is a guide on how to use psychological techniques to create propaganda, with the
second and third books covering microbiology and human anatomy.
The fourth book is a study into alchemy and metal work, but after that things start to
get a little weird.
Book five tells you how to communicate with extra-terrestrials, book six is basically
a "how to build your own spaceship" guide, book seven is about time travel, and book
eight details how man can manipulate the speed of light.
The final book covers sociology and the evolution of human societies, but after all the time
travel and alien stuff, I imagine this last one's not much of a page-turner.
Number 4: The Order of the Occult Hand Have you ever experienced that weird feeling
you get when you suddenly learn a new word or phrase, then you can't stop seeing it everywhere
for days, weeks or even months afterwards?
That's called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, and one group who seem to love provoking this
feeling are the Order of the Occult Hand.
This secret society is mostly comprised of print journalists who have one single goal;
to insert the phrase "it was as if an occult hand had" into newspapers, magazines and other
printed publications.
This odd ritual began in 1965 when the friends of police reporter Joseph Flanders were so
amused by his use of the phrase that they decided to smuggle it into as many articles
as possible.
The Order was exposed in 2004 when a killjoy reporter at the Chicago Tribune wrote a piece
about them, but this hasn't stopped their fun one bit.
Because in 2006 leader Paul Greenberg, a Pulitzer prize-winning editor, announced that a new
phrase had been chosen by the group, one which remains undiscovered to this day.
Number 3: The Society of the Horseman's Word This British society was basically a club
for 19th Century horse whisperers, with its members required to be employed in the care
of horses, to keep the secrets of handling horses, and be willing to shake hands with
the devil during the group's acceptance ritual - albeit a devil whose arm was made from a
fur covered broom.
But still, if you're blindfolded you're always taking a risk by holding out your hand to
grab something long, hard and furry.
While much of the Horsemen's activity revolved around sharing and retaining the knowledge
needed to care for horses, some members were known to take their horse love to a weirdly
spiritual level.
At the time, horses were seen as somewhat mystical animals, and those who controlled
them were thought to have magical powers.
In some parts of the UK, Horsemen were even known as Horse Witches, and this reputation
wasn't helped by their use of a secret word known only to their members.
Each chapter of the society would have its own individual secret word, and those who
spoke it were supposedly able to control horses and women at will.
But some Horsemen societies were known to use just one single statement as their secret
word, with that phrase being "Both in One".
I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to what that means.
Number 2: The Giga Society Remember that Indian group with only nine
members?
Well the Giga Society is even more exclusive, consisting of just six or seven members in
total, depending on which randomly Googled source you'd like me to believe.
The Giga Society is pretty vague on what its members get up to and how elaborate their
super secret handshake is.
But since membership to this group is based on intelligence, I'd guess very.
The Giga Society comprises solely of individuals who can demonstrate an IQ higher than 195.
This would make you smarter than 99.9999999% of the population, but if you miss the cut-off
point you can always try the Mega Society, who require an IQ of 172 to join their 26
member club.
Too dumb to be Mega?
Then join Prometheus; if you can hit their 160 IQ target.
or Triple Nine if you're only able to scrape above 146.
An IQ of 135 will get you into Intertel, and it only takes a 130 IQ to join Mensa's 110,000
members.
Anything less than that and you'll be lucky to get into Chuck E Cheese.
Number 1: The Skoptsy The Skoptsy are by far the most gruesome secret
society on this list, as rather than celebrating human sexuality like Aleister Crowley and
his pals, this brutal Russian sect would castrate men and mastectomise women in the belief that
genitals and breasts were sinful.
Founded in the 18th Century by two peasants, the Skoptsy thought that genitals and breasts
only appeared after Adam and Eve consumed a piece of forbidden fruit.
Interesting theory.
I wonder what other cool sexy junk we'd have if they'd eaten their five a day?
But for the Skoptsy one pair of boobs or balls was one pair too many, and with no anaesthetic
or surgical implements, members would often resort to carving them off with primitive
shaving knives.
These folks sound pretty crazy right?
But at one point there were over 100,000 Skoptsy living and presumably bleeding in Russia,
with many of its members including high-ranking officials and generals.
Their numbers have dwindled of late, but there are still a rumoured 200 Skoptsy followers
to this very day, with their most famous member being one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
Ha, just kidding.
But now I think about it, that would explain a lot.
So did you enjoy our video?
I hope so, because we probably don't have many left with Putin's death squads now on
their way to poison my burrito.
But if you'd like to know more about peculiar people and their perverse practices, then
take a look at our recent video on the ten strangest mating rituals.
None of which the Skoptsy are capable of enjoying.
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