Slime Design...  

   Where to start?

   Oh, yes... In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

   Then He made snails. 

   Engineers at Penn State created a super-strong, yet reversible adhesive to mimic snail slime, which offers a happy medium between superglue and not super sticky. 

   Snails secrete a wet, gooey substance that on a dry day works its way into microscopic pores, even on smooth surfaces, where it hardens. It cements the snail in place, creating a seal that prevents the snail from drying out. 

   At night under wetter conditions, and safer for the snail, the substance softens and allows the creature to move. 

   Researchers developed something (with a name longer than the snail) that mimics the ability of snail goo. A patch the size of a postage stamp can hold the weight of a researcher suspended by a harness, yet still releases its grip when wet. 

WORLD online

      Jimmy

   

Photo Seen Around the World     
    
   Finally, accountability.

   Did you see the sad photo of a father and 2-year-old daughter face down in the Rio Grande? The father had set his girl, Valeria, on the northern bank and started back for his wife and another child. The frightened toddler understandably went back into the water to be with her daddy.

   Swift current swept both away.

   El Salvador's new president said his country bears responsibility, as security and economic hardships he inherited are driving people to desperate decisions. "People don't leave their homes because they want to. People flee their homes because they feel they have to," he told BBC. They feel they have no choice, he added.

   "We can blame any other country, but what about our blame? What country did they flee? They fled El Salvador, they fled our country, it is our fault," he said.

   In the U.S., where we scorn each other, some blame Trump policies. Others blame Congress for failing to fix immigration laws..
  
   It's just sad. 

Washington Post

      Jimmy

Wish I'd Said That    
       
   Do you ever hear people say something so reasonable you wish you had thought of it? That happened with me when I read a letter to the editor by someone named Pat (we'll guess Pat is a man). 

   Pat took issue with an editorial critical of President Trump (as if this doesn't happen daily). Anyway, he considers this particular criticism "premature" at the least. 

   He says Trump is dealing with long-time dictatorships like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and North Korea. Pat says, "Their true bottom lines amount to regime preservation." 

   Trump's unconventional style is fair criticism, Pat thinks. But, "criticism must be tempered by the reality that the president is trying to deal with the adverse consequences of decades of benign neglect by previous Democratic and Republican administrations." 

   "Let's wait to see," he writes, "if any of Trump's experiments with personal engagement and disruption leads somewhere." In Pat's opinion, there is little evidence of success, but there is no evidence of failure detrimental to the United States. 

   He points out that China is not stealing more of our intellectual property than before, and is responding (slowly) to the trade issue. Russia has not annexed more of the former Soviet Union, and Saudi Arabia is checking Iran.

   "Iran seems to have shifted to a proxy mode," Pat writes, though "unfortunately funded by the (Obama administration) bribe in the 'maybe later' nuclear deal" (which Iran never signed, by the way). North Korea has not lit off more ballistic missiles and is talking with the South. NATO is pulling more of its own weight."  

   If these aren't victories, at least they are "deviations from the trend lines which existed," he concludes.

~ ~ ~

   Don't hold your breath that Democratic presidential candidates and the media which supports them will follow Pat's advice. But, we appreciate his analysis.

      Jimmy

  

   

Far Greater Freedom      
 

   Let the parades begin. Strike up the bands. Enjoy the fireworks. Yet, in spite of our grand ideals and our achievements, we are still a people not as united as we wish to be. 

   And why is that? Because we're all born with a nature that is subject to desires, attitudes, temptations...and who knows the extent of underworld influence? We may be politically free, thank God, but not all of us are free as God defines freedom.

   Are we good people? None of us is righteous. We all fall short. Romans chapter 3.

   Then came Jesus: 

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

   He offers the power of his life, by the Spirit, freedom from the desires of our nature. With belief and faith, 

You have been set free from sin. Romans 6:18

   We continue to fight - spiritual warfare, pressures of the world, and our stubborn nature. 

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Galatians 5:1  

   Full freedom comes after we depart this world. 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit ... is there is freedom. 

2 Corinthians 3:17

   To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 

and has made us ... to serve his God and Father - to him 

be glory and power for ever and ever! 

Revelation 1:5

Far greater freedom. Not even to be compared.

   

How Are We Doing?     
   

   "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

    So, how are we doing for our grand kids?

   Wow! We've excelled in all the benefits the founders envisioned, far beyond what they could have imagined. Yes, we overpowered some people here and there. We also provide a constitution for others to consider.  

   For all the injustice, generally there has been justice. Defense, welfare and liberty - high marks. We rank only 36th regarding the welfare of our children, so we have some work to do there.

   We outlived world communism, discovered many cures and other medical advances, and our national wealth is so amazing, we enable trading partners to prosper. And drug dealers get so wealthy because individual Americans have so much cash to give them. 

   Then there are wannabe presidents who say we're immoral, because all this money "is in the wrong hands," or everybody has the right to medical insurance, even non citizens, or there's so much inequality. So-called poverty is anything below $25,000/year, or something like that. 

   Maybe Venezuelans would like to return to the old days of inequality, and Cubans might trade some free stuff for more food. 

   We'll soon see what Americans think about our freedom and prosperity (debt aside). There are people who want major Constitutional changes, and have for many years. Maybe our greatest threat is living among us.   

       Jimmy

It's Declaration Time Again   

   They declared freedom to choose...

life's work

           to travel

    to try ... to fail and try again

                             to speak    or write

   question or criticize 

          to praise          to save and build         to worship or not

                to borrow and build             to buy and sell          to vote

    to make an honest profit        to start a business        to create  

          to discover and to heal        to teach and to learn      to dream

                                     to protect and defend


   It wasn't perfect, and there were restrictions. Natives were forced from their lands. Africans continued to be enslaved in southern states. And not everyone lives by the rules, or use their freedom wisely. July 4th, 1776, announced to the world there would come a better way of doing nation. A way for we the people, not the kings and bullies. 

   And Ben Franklin said, it's "a Republic, if you can keep it."

       Jimmy

Where is God?      
     
   We don't much notice him perhaps in our freedom, comfort and prosperity. 

   But a new documentary, Jesus in Athens, tells of Christ bringing Muslim refugees in Greece to saving faith through Christian love.

   In 2015, more than 900,000 refugees and migrants entered Greece. More than 50,000 remain. These people escaped war, oppression, poverty or slavery. 

   They are being treated with kindness, as evangelists and churches help them with language classes, legal aid, food, shelter and showers. They also practice friendship with various activities. 

   Some ministries focus on children, protecting them from sexual predators, while providing shelter, education and Bibles.

   A church planter, who also drives taxi, witnesses to Muslim passengers. One told him, "God took us out of our country and brought us here in Greece to hear about Jesus."

   The driver says, "God took away our fear and prejudice." He welcomes Muslims into his home and has baptized hundreds in a water fountain. 

   Many converts speak openly on camera, admitting they are telling other Muslims about Jesus.

   WORLD magazine's contributor says, "Watching this documentary gives a glimpse of what a New Testament church might have been like: believers sacrificially loving strangers, proclaiming Christ, and humbly growing together."

Of course, God is everywhere.

And the Holy Spirit lives in every redeemed heart. 

We see him work mightily among those

who need him mightily.