God\u27s Goodness for the Kingdom

God’s plan for His kingdom has always been far different than human thoughts through the ages have expected, and it will continue to be so. Posting about ­­­­­­­­trusting in God\u27s ways from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world. http://inallthings.org/gods-goodness-for-the-kingdom

Technology at Every Moment

We interact with technology every day, every minute, pretty much every second. And on rare occasions, we may stop to ponder how technology is affecting our lives and relationships. Posting about ­­­­­­­­how technology affects the way people relate to each other from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world. http://inallthings.org/technology-at-every-moment

Once-For-All Sacrifice

Christ cares about us in spite of our inadequacy; he loves us so much, in fact, that he made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Posting about walking in the joy of Christ\u27s resurrection from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation. http://inallthings.org/once-for-all-sacrifice

Integral Precast Girder-to-Cap Connections for Accelerated Bridge Construction in Seismic Regions

Accelerated bridge construction (ABC) is increasingly desired and needed, due to the aging transportation infrastructure across the United States and the always-growing demand placed on our nation’s highway system. Precast concrete is a common way to incorporate ABC techniques. Advantages over typical cast-in-place concrete methods include speed of field construction, improved quality control, and decrease in detoured traffic during construction, among others. However, precast concrete structures have not been used to their full potential in high seismic regions, due to the deficiency of precast concrete connections in past earthquake events. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is eager to incorporate ABC methods if connections suitable for high seismic regions can be developed. Therefore, a study has been conducted to investigate the inverted-tee cap beam and Ishaped girder bridge system for its viability for implementation by Caltrans. A large-scale experimental investigation of the bridge system was conducted, verifying that the system has excellent potential for such use. The study identified an as-built connection detail that has been previously incorporated by Caltrans as being capable of providing an integral moment girder-to-cap connection. However, the study also introduced an improved connection detail utilizing grouted unstressed strands, similar to those used in post-tensioning applications, that has the promise of providing an even better connection alternative. A follow-up large-scale experimental study was conducted to provide a detailed investigation of the improved detail. In addition, the follow-up study was used to quantify the performance of another new girder-to-cap connection detail utilizing looped strands and dowel bars. Both connection details were verified to be very constructible and to provide excellent seismic performance, even when subjected to vertical acceleration demands significantly beyond typical design recommendations. Along with connection behavior, these experimental studies were used in conjunction with analytical approaches to investigate current approaches related to load distribution in integral bridges. This work showed that current recommendations are overly conservative in the amount of the column seismic moment that is required to be carried by adjacent girders in the superstructure. A better distribution model, based on the relative stiffness of the superstructure components, is proposed that matches well with the analytical and experimental results from this study and three other large-scale experimental seismic studies. Finally, analytical approaches for the incorporation of vertical acceleration effects were considered, and the results were used to verify the observed experimental performance of the proposed girder-to-cap connection details

God is Creation\u27s Second-by-Second Sustainer

... the Psalms clearly indicate God\u27s active hand in creation. Posting about God\u27s orderly care in nature from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world. http://inallthings.org/god-is-creations-second-by-second-sustainer

Culture of Comparison

When we find ourselves caught up in the world’s measuring sticks... let’s remember that one sinful human measured against other sinful humans is still just a sinful human. Posting about our confidence in Christ from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation. http://inallthings.org/culture-of-comparison

A Campfire (Laptop) Story: Doing Technology

We should critically evaluate everything we do and use as we live and work and love in God’s creation. Posting about ­­­­­­­­a perceived juxtaposition between nature and technology from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation. https://inallthings.org/a-campfire-laptop-story-doing-technology

The strategy of Christian mission to Muslims: Anglican and reformed contributions in India and the near east from Henry Martyn to Samuel Zwemer, 1800-938

"What constitutes an adequate Christian approach to non -Christian religious and secular man?" This contemporary question elicits lively discussion among Christians in many lands. The urgency of the question appears to be intensified by rapid world change. Technological advance, revolutionary social and political ferment, and the growing inter- dependence of nations means that the religions of man are to be in unavoidable contact. This situation of proximity and plurality could be described as the new era of inter -religion.Christian- Muslim relationships and attitudes are no small part of this world scene. The Islamic community of about 450 million and the Christian community of nearly one billion, roughly half of the world's population, will have increasing contact. What shall be the end result of it? Their past record of trial and error, tension and enlightenment, hope and fear is all too descriptive of our universe and its humanity. Yet man desires something more than fragmentation and continual chaotic conflict. He longs for the experience of "community ", a realization of the true family of man. He realizes that he does not fulfill the true destiny for which he was created simply by co- existing in time and space with other inhabitants of this planet. Conflicting or even parallel existence will not suffice. In his deep interior, man is aware that his problem is theological. The solution of "wholeness" (peace, shalom, salaam) is to be found in his Creator.This dissertation will examine the historical development of various Anglican and Reformed missions to Muslims as an answer to the vital question: What constitutes a Christian approach or approaches to Muslims? It is written in the conviction that history contains lessons that man can learn in the light of Christ. As McGavran says:"The Church can develop right strategy in mission. All she has to do is to observe what has taken place in the hundreds of matchless laboratories which a hundred and sixty years of modern missions have provided. By amassing knowledge, by pooling the common experience of missions and churches, by assembling the evidences of instances where the Church was planted, where it grew, where it stopped growing, and where it never even started, she can discern which processes in which specific circumstances receive God's blessing and which do not. Right strategy will spend large sums of money and the lives of some of its best men and women in intensive research into the most effective ways and means of reconciling men to God and of multiplying churches. "The inquiry into the actual developments "in- the -field" in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has but begun. The history of the "Church in Mission" demands serious consideration.In a missiological study, one finds two levels requiring attention. First, there is the actual activity of a person or group as they labor on the field to communicate their message, build the church and achieve other objectives in the given situation. Their interpretation of their situation and their message greatly affects their course of action. Second, there is the reflection of a person or group upon their activity, the formulation of what may be called, an approach. In such they describe their motive ,methods, means, and objectives. They may also struggle with such crucial issues as the meaning of "mission ", the content of their "message ", their relation to non -Christian religions, their relation to the culture of the land, the eschatological understanding of the Church - Kingdom, etc. Some scholars attempt to keep these two levels of "activity" and "approach" separate, but this seems neither possible nor desirable.1 This is especially true when examining the nineteenth century where one finds the best source materials for Christian "approaches" interwoven into the very life, work and writings (or "activity ") of men serving in the field. Often the life and work of individuals or groups discloses a distinct "approach" which may or may not agree with their written statements.The quantity of primary materials for Anglican and Reformed contributions to the Christian mission to Muslims in India and the Near East from Henry Martyn to Samuel Zwemer, 1800-1938, is almost overwhelming. There are surveys, appeals, and reports of individual missionaries and mission societies; studies of these lands, peoples, their history and religion; tracts, booklets, and literature used in evangelism on the mission field; autobiographical accounts and frequently articles and monographs by missionaries themselves. Of more secondary nature, yet valuable are the official histories and numerous biographies. Wherever possible, the author will show preference for primary monographs, correspondence, and other writings of personnel engaged in the actual work. The reports of the various missionary conferences also contain a wealth of material.Of necessity, a study such as this must contain certain self -imposed restrictions. First, this study has been confined to the time -span from the advent of modern Protestant missions to the crisis at Tambaram, 1800 -1938. While this may appear unwieldy in itself, it is a unit revealing important development in both theory and practice. For those who would fully realize the strides achieved, the preceding twelve centuries of Muslim- Christian relationships and attitudes must be examined. Second, this research has been limited geographically to endeavours in northern India (present -day Pakistan and North India) and the Near East (sometimes called the Middle East or Western Asia, but defined in this case as running from Egypt to Iran, from Turkey to the Arabian Peninsula). This is not to minimize the vital mission work carried on in Indonesia and the Far East, or Africa, or in southern Europe. Thirdly, this study concentrates on the work of the Churches of the Reformation. Roman Catholic ventures preceded, paralleled and sometimes surpassed Protestant efforts. More limited, and not yet given their due credit, are the Russian Orthodox missions. In the process of this research, it was discovered that the bulk of mission work for Muslims in the above lands was initiated by various Anglican and Reformed (includes Presbyterian and Congregational) groups. By confining this study to them, it is not to be forgotten that many other dedicated individuals and bands sacrificially labored and labor still in the Name of Christ. Fourthly, wherever possible representative figures of Anglican and Reformed efforts have been selected as "focal points ". Where available, monographs of these repre- sentatives have been examined in addition to their life and work. In those areas or situations where the work lacked distinct leaders or the emphasis was placed upon a team- effort, the broader activity and approach of the group have been treated. Other details have been extracted from the thousands of pages of surveys, reports and histories read to describe the missionary milieu and to provide a sense of continuity.The arrangement of this dissertation is quite obvious by a perusal of the table of contents. In chapter one, a brief examination is made of the development of the concept of "mission" and the growth of various attitudes towards Islam in Protestant circles from the Reformation to 1800. Chapter two, a study in methods, presents the development of the rather direct approaches made to Muslims by Anglican and Reformed workers in northern India from 1800 to 1910 and the emergence of Churches conscious of their unity and mission to Islam. Chapter three describes the activities and approaches of Reformed and Anglican workers in the Near East from 1800 to 1910. In the Near East one discovers the situation was complicated by ecclesiastical relations, governmental restrictions, social pressures, and communal tensions. Ecclesiastical and environmental factors have become the focal points for this study of "encounter ". In order to grasp what was intended and that actually happened, the student of history must devote more attention to the organizational development and activity of the Mission Societies and Churches and thus less to individuals. The concluding chapter discloses the emergence of maturing ecumenical Anglican and Reformed approaches to Muslims in the persons, works and writings of W. H. T. Gairdner and Samuel M. Zwemer. These two outstanding figures give honorable representation to developments in their traditions over the preceding century. It is the author's belief that they deserve fuller attention than they have been given inasmuch as they serve as "hinges" between the best of their traditions in two centuries. They give expression to the culmination of nineteenth century efforts to reach Muslims for Christ and introduce the twentieth century's concern for sympathetic communication of the Gospel to the people of Islam.It is hoped that this study may contribute in some measure to an understanding and appreciation of the great achievement in thought and action from 1800 to 1938; to a grasp of the significance of the debate regarding theology and mission since World War I; and to the strengthening of the Church in her present resolve and effort of mission to Muslims in the Name of Jesus Christ

Integrally Christian Engineering Scholarship: A Case Study

Engineering programs at Christian colleges typically focus primarily on undergraduate education. Likewise, faculty members drawn to Christian engineering education tend to have a strong desire to disciple young men and women in what it means to be faithful Christ followers in engineering. Consequently, engineering faculty tend to work long and hard to provide a solid education experience, leaving little time for anything else. However, institutional demands on faculty typically extend far past teaching, and one area that inevitably pops up in growing Christian engineering programs is research and scholarship. What is the place of research in a Christian engineering program? Does it have a place at all? And what should Christian engineering research look like? These are big questions, and a simple paper like this one cannot provide an exhaustive answer. However, as a baby step, this paper will examine a Christian lens through which engineering scholarship can be viewed and critiqued. This lens consists of five guiding principles for engineering that were developed based on the Creation-FallRedemption paradigm and presented previously1 . Using these guiding principles, engineering scholarship that was conducted in a typical university research format and published in a traditional engineering journal2 will be carefully examined and critiqued. In doing so, my hope is that a bit of light will be shed on what integrally Christian engineering scholarship looks like, and that this understanding might provide insight on answering other questions in regards to research and scholarship in Christian engineering programs

Guiding Principles for Integrally Christian Engineering Work in Industry

What is integrally Christian engineering? Or to ask it slightly differently, what does engineering look like if it is faithful and obedient to God’s will as revealed in His Word? I do not think we, as finite and creaturely Christ-followers, can expect to exhaustively determine God’s biblical directive for every facet of engineering and technology on this side eternity. However, if we truly believe that Christ is Lord of all of life and that He calls us to grateful service in everything we do, we need to continue to wrestle with these questions. One framework to help navigate these questions that has been proposed and previously presented consists of five guiding principles for engineering. These principles were developed by focusing on God’s Word as the Christ-narrative, the Creation-Fall-Redemption story, and applying this lens directly to engineering. The guiding principles have been applied in academic settings including both curriculum and scholarship, and in this paper they will be used to analyze and critique service in a few different engineering settings of the work-a-day world. Reflections on these principles from engineers in different industries including manufacturing, power distribution, building systems, and civil infrastructure will be collected and presented to shed light on how it makes a difference in the daily lives of engineers to view their work through a distinctively Christian lens. My prayer is that this work will help us continue to learn how to engineer in a way that gives all glory to God as we live in the already and not yet of Christ’s kingdom