I Corinthians 15:12-14 :: Religion Christianity Bible Essays

I Corinthians 15:12-14 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith (NIV). The resurrection of the dead is a mysterious concept that even some Christians have a hard time believing. Paul makes a strong statement regarding the importance of the resurrection and how it is tied to the faith of Christian believers. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians was a response to a number of problems in the church of Corinth. One of the main problems the Corinthians were having was speculation on the resurrection [of the dead] which was preached to them by Paul. The passage in which Paul talks about the resurrection is toward the end of his letter, before he discusses his plans and finishes with exhortations and greetings. The first half of the letter, after he gives his greeting and thanksgiving, is in response to reports that he has received regarding the Corinthians. The second half is in response to questions and concerns that they had. In the New International Version (NIV) of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, his preaching and their faith are described as "useless" if Christ has not been raised (15:14). However, in the New King James Version (NKJV), Paul's preaching and the faith of the Corinthians are described as empty. These descriptions are very similar and both have a strong impact on the reader. If preaching and faith are empty, then they are also useless. The preaching of Paul to the Corinthians is certainly not useless and their faith, although problematic, is not empty. According to The Women's Bible Commentary, the Corinthians were convinced that already they fully enjoyed the spiritual benefits of the resurrection (321). They believed the resurrection of Christ was beneficial so they did not even consider that the dead were raised from the dead. Paul preached that Christ has been raised from the dead and the Corinthians believed what he said. It is because of this belief that Paul can bring his point across regarding the resurrection of the dead. If the Corinthians did not believe that Christ has been raised, Paul would be unable to convince them of the resurrection of the dead.

Walking and Word Swag

Got Swag? 1. What is â€Å"swag†? Being a commonly used word in the 21st century, â€Å"swag† has arisen from song lyrics and populated through postages on popular online websites such as â€Å"Facebook†, â€Å"Twitter†, and â€Å"Tumblr†. It has stemmed from the word â€Å"swagger†, which is a noun that means a very confident and typically arrogant or aggressive manner. This manifestation of the word â€Å"swag† has caused most teenagers to use this term to define themselves. Swag is utilized as a noun to describe a person’s mannerisms as â€Å"cool† when compared to the ordinary layperson.In the contemporary society, a key judgment of one’s character is whether their actions contain swag or not. Swag can be defined either negatively or positively through judgment of everyday actions such as walking, talking, and self-appearance. 2. As aforementioned, the way a person walks or talks may show whether they have swag or not. Someone who would be considered to have swag would walk in a confident and self-assured manner. Key characteristics of such a person’s walking habits are having a straight posture, meticulous foot placing, and a subtle arm sway.In addition to walking habits, smooth-talking teenagers are believed to show swag by the way they speak. For example, a guy can smooth-talk and flirt with a girl to persuade her on a date with him. On the other hand, a girl can talk with swag by conveying a more confident tone. She can assertively talk about her unique qualities (e. g. her curvy body) as a sign of swag. Aside from being able to â€Å"walk the walk† and â€Å"talk the talk†, having a unique fashion sense also differentiates the layperson from one who has swag. 3. The appearance, grooming, and outfits of people may or may not indicate that they have swag.Regarding clothes, swag is gauged by one’s sense of style. The median used for this gauge is the dressing habits of many celebrities in the music industry. For instance, outfits like adjustable snapback hats, Jordan sneakers, varsity leather jackets, or sweatshirts by the label Obey are types of swag clothing. Celebrities such as rappers, Soulja Boy, Tyga, and as well as singer, Justin Bieber, wear swag type of clothing. The iconic status of celebrities influences people to dress like them. Conversely, there are many people who see the style swag in a negative manner.People such as myself do not like to dress that certain style and would rather dress in a more formal style. For example, my style of clothes would be considered GQ or Gentlemen Quality-like, which comes from a fashion magazine style regarding formal clothes. My GQ style is different from the swag style because it consists of classy clothes such as polo shirts, button downs, ties, and suits. The style dichotomy between GQ and swag shows how different types of people can have opposing opinions on the use of the word swag. 4 . My opinion of the word is in a negative connotation but others use the word as a compliment.Teenagers use swag in their everyday lives to describe their activities. For examples some teenagers consider swag as sexual activity, buying the newest swag style clothes or doing what they believe is â€Å"cool†. Everyone has different opinions of what action is considered â€Å"cool† or not. As a result, many people have the opinion that swag is an unprofessional word with unnecessary and meaningless content. The different views of the word show two different opinions. 5. A personal story involving the word swag involved one of my achievements on the dance floor of a party.My friend George and I were always partying on the weekends and were invited to a private high school party. On the night of the party, I got the chance to dance with one of the best looking girls there. As I was dancing, I saw George point at me and heard him say, â€Å"Now that is swag† to anothe r girl standing next to him. George was indicating that I had swag because I was dancing with a beautiful girl. After my dance, I told him to not label anything I do as swag. The reason why I said this stems from my non-conforming personality. I told him that I view swag has a negative description and would prefer not to change my opinions about it. . The slang word swag is common in this new generation. Therefore, the use of the word is more popular among teenagers. Having swag or what is considered to be swag is simply a word for people to describe what they believe to be as â€Å"cool†. As portrayed in the narrative, telling a person they have swag may even be taken offensively; especially if that individual does not believe in the society – defined definition of the word. Conclusively, the different aspects of walking, talking, and style can be gauged as a negative or positive outlook on swag based on one’s personal opinions.

Harrison Brothers Corporation Essay

1. Background Harrison Brothers Corporation is one of the largest traditional department stores in the United States. The goal of the company is to become the leading chain of department stores that sells high quality clothing to middle-class and fashion-concerned customers. Like other companies in the retail industry, Harrison Brothers are experiencing various changes in customers’ buying preferences. In addition to that, the problem of retention of well-trained, highly motivated salesman and managers has become even more challenging in the industry. James Harrison, the CEO of Harrison Brothers, knowing the importance of human resources, did a survey on human resource and other key managers at the store level. 2. Problem Definition The survey indicates there are lots of problems in the HR department and these problems might indirectly or directly slow down Harrison Brothers’ growth in the future. The major human resource management (HRM) problem in Harrison Brothers is that HRM is still struggling in its function of maintaining personnel. For example, since there is heavy turnover on salesman, Brenda McCain, the human resource manager, conducted about 25 to 30 interviews a week, and more during the holiday rush. Further, there is only one trainer in Harrison Brothers, causing McCain to spend a lot of time on training, neglecting bigger picture HRM issues. One of the other problems is that HRM pays little attention to employees’ business skills. This is shown in the survey where HR managers ratedthe importance of both knowledge of business and skills in managing change, as 2.0 out of 5.0, while store managers rated the importance of those skills as 4.5.One of Harrison Brothers five strategic goals is to improve productivity of sales, buyers, and department heads. And corporations must prepare their employees to cope with the complexities and accelerated speed of a future economy. If HRM perceives knowledge of business and managing change, as the least important, Harrison Brothers may have a hard time achieving this strategic goal. There are other problems as well. These include, but are not limited to, supervisors that are reluctant to assess employees’ career planning and professional development, a human resources department which is constrained by cost considerations, and low administrative efficiency. These problemsare currently existing problems. However, in the long term, if HR in Harrison  Brothers remains the same, many more problems will arise. Harrison Brothers may have difficulty in talent retention, it may experience poor employee performance and low productivity, or there may be conflict in the workplace. In all, the current overall HRM practicewill not be able to meet the challenge Harrison Brothersmay encounter in the future, and will not help Harrison Brothers to achieve its long-term goal. 3. Causes of the Problem The main cause of these problems is that there is no HR planning in Harrison Brothers.HR planning is a way to analyze needs for employee and supply of employees, and then make a plan to make sure the organization have the right amount of employees and skills. That’s probably the reason why HR department is struggling and spending most of its time on staffing and training. Another important cause of it is that human resources department didn’t see human resource management from a strategic level.As Jennifer Daft, the store manager said, human resource department seem to be struggling to keep up with the day-to-day activities. HRM should free itself from day-to-day activities and become influential in strategic decision-making process. 4. Alternative Solutions There are several approaches to fix these problems. First of all, large-sized firms like Harrison Brothers should develop HRM from its traditional functions up to more strategic level management. This would allowsomeone such as McCainto be brought induring a strategic decision-making process, giving her the ability to make or strongly influence the decision itself. To do this, she must have the skills needed to function as a strategic business partner, which lead to the solution that follows. Second of all, McCain and her HR teammates may need to be trained to learn more about business knowledge, such as markets, finance and so on. This knowledge can enhance HR’s strategic role in the organization. Training programs need to be designed and implemented to identify, coach and develop professional skills in HR. Also, McCain might want to consider transferring the old HR department’s organization to a new one in order to meet the challenges in the dramatically changing busi ness environment. For example, one of many other forms of HR structure is made up of three main departments: HRBP (human resource business partner), COE (center of excellence/expertise), and  SSC (shared service center). This type of organizational structure allows the HR unit to respond to the market rapidly. Surely there are many other forms, and regardless of which particular one it is, Harrison Brothers needs tofind one type of structure that meets the needs of their own strategy and allows the HR unit a crucial role to play. The fourth solution McCain might try is to measure HRM by using tools such as Balanced Scorecard, Dollar Value or benchmarking. Assessment of HRM could give the HR manager a new and quantifiable way to view the efficiency of HRM.In this case, McCain can benchmark and analyze competitors’ staffing and hiring by calculating HR indices such as cost per hire by job level and source, time to fill and time to start. These data can give her a better idea of whether Harrison Brothers is spending more on hiring than other companies in the retail industry. The last solution, but not least, is to enhance HR administrative efficiency. A centralized HR services department or center should be established. In this way, McCain and her team can free themselves from repeated daily routines. 5. Recommendations I would recommend trainingMcCain and her team to learn more about finance and market, as HR, finance and marketing are all important to understand how to run a business as a whole. Armed with business knowledge, she and her team can bring Harrison Brothers HR unit into a strategic level. Also, transferring HR structure and enhancing administrative efficiency will help McCain and her team to work more efficiently.

Sexual dimorphism essays

Sexual dimorphism essays Darwins theory of evolution, natural selection, plays a role in the sexual dimorphism of purple-throated caribs. Natural selection directly alters the frequency of phenotypes. For natural selection to occur there must be variation of a trait among the individuals. Secondly, the trait must be able to be passed down from one generation to the other. Thirdly, there must be differential reproductive success, meaning that one trait will survive to be passed on more often than the other. Sexual dimorphism is the difference in trait between different sexes of the same species. The female hummingbirds bills are longer than the males and are curved at 30 degrees, compared to that of 15 degrees of the males. Such sexual dimorphism evolved through the ecology of feeding; the difference in bills enables both sexes to eat different foods. The only food plants available to the caribs are red-bracted H. caribaeas and green-bracted H. bihais. Both sexes differ in the way they use the two species. T he males are more settled and tended to control and defend the densest stands of H. caribaea, which bears three times as many flowers as H.bihai. Females behaved differently. Because females have to incubate eggs and raise offspring without male assistance, they cant guard flower patches and therefore must feed from undefended patches. The females smaller size prevents them from competing successfully against males for the richest territories (H. caribaeas). Now that we know what plants each sex feeds on, the differences in flowers of the two species of plant will explain why the bills of the sexes are different. The H.caribaea flower, dominated by male pollinators, is shorter and straighter than the flowers of H. bihai. They are shorter than the H. bihai flower by six millimeters, which is also how much the males bill differs from the females. The H. caribaea flowers are curved at a 20 degrees arc, which suits the males&...

Path Analysis -- What it Is and How to Use It

Path Analysis What it Is and How to Use It Path analysis is a form of multiple regression statistical analysis that is used to evaluate causal models by examining the relationships between a dependent variable and two or more independent variables. By using this method, one can estimate both the magnitude and significance of causal connections between variables. Key Takeaways: Path Analysis By conducting a path analysis, researchers can better understand the causal relationships between different variables.To begin, researchers draw a diagram that serves as a visual representation of the relationship between variables.Next, researchers use a statistical software program (such as SPSS or STATA) to compare their predictions to the actual relationship between the variables. Overview Path analysis is theoretically useful because, unlike other techniques, it forces us to specify relationships among all of the independent variables. This results in a model showing causal mechanisms through which independent variables produce both direct and indirect effects on a dependent variable. Path analysis was developed by Sewall Wright, a geneticist, in 1918. Over time the method has been adopted in other physical sciences and social sciences, including sociology. Today one can conduct path analysis with statistical programs including SPSS and STATA, among others. The method is also known as  causal modeling, analysis of covariance structures, and latent variable models. Prerequisites for Conducting a Path Analysis There are two main requirements for path analysis: All causal relationships between variables must go in one direction only (you cannot have a pair of variables that cause each other)The variables must have a clear time-ordering since one variable cannot be said to cause another unless it precedes it in time. How to Use Path Analysis Typically path analysis involves the construction of a path diagram in which the relationships between all variables and the causal direction between them are specifically laid out. When conducting a path analysis, one might first construct an input path diagram, which illustrates the hypothesized relationships. In a path diagram, researchers use arrows to show how different variables relate to each other. An arrow pointing from, say, Variable A to Variable B, shows that Variable A is hypothesized to influence Variable B. After the statistical analysis has been completed, a researcher would then construct an output path diagram, which illustrates the relationships as they actually exist, according to the analysis conducted. If the researcher’s hypothesis is correct, the input path diagram and output path diagram will show the same relationships between variables. Examples of Path Analysis in Research Lets consider an example in which path analysis might be useful. Say you hypothesize that age has a direct effect on job satisfaction, and you hypothesize that it has a positive effect, such that the older one is, the more satisfied one will be with their job. A good researcher will realize that there are certainly other independent variables that also influence our dependent variable of job satisfaction: for example, autonomy and income, among others. Using path analysis, a researcher can create a diagram that charts the relationships between the variables. The diagram would show a link between age and autonomy (because typically the older one is, the greater degree of autonomy they will have), and between age and income (again, there tends to be a positive relationship between the two). Then, the diagram should also show the relationships between these two sets of variables and the dependent variable: job satisfaction. After using a statistical program to evaluate these relationships, one can then redraw the diagram to indicate the magnitude and significance of the relationships. For example, the researcher might find that both autonomy and income are related to job satisfaction, that one of these two variables has a much stronger link to job satisfaction than the other, or that neither variable has a significant link to job satisfaction. Strengths and Limitations of Path Analysis While path analysis is useful for evaluating causal hypotheses, this method cannot determine the  direction  of causality. It clarifies correlation and indicates the strength of a causal hypothesis, but does not prove direction of causation. In order to fully understand the direction of causality, researchers can consider conducting experimental studies in which participants are randomly assigned to a treatment and control group. Additional Resources Students wishing to learn more about path analysis and how to conduct it can refer to  the University of Exeter’s overview of Path Analysis and  Quantitative Data Analysis for Social Scientists  by Bryman and Cramer. Updated by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.

Health Care Management and Obama health care reform Essay

Health Care Management and Obama health care reform - Essay Example Health insurance and public health have been in the front line in this kind of debates as well as to what extent should the state offer assistance. Provision of healthcare is a task that encompasses provision of various healthcare services, relevant equipments to hospitals, pharmaceutical products, life sciences funding and funding in biotechnology (Reid 2009). The activities that relate to healthcare and the centers where this is carried out include hospitals, nursing and elderly homes, those involved in provision of healthcare plans, provision of laboratory services, drug manufacturing and delivery, diagnostic substances and biotechnology itself. Therefore, this is a line that requires care to handle in the case of governments as it is a resource intensive sector. This also shows how the introduction as well as implementation of reforms can be quite a task as the stakeholders involved are many resulting to many and divergent views (McGreal 2010). This is what characterized the heal thcare reforms bill that Obama administration brought forth. The above is not a case whose debate came with the Obama administration but rather has been with the American administrations for years now (The Economist 2008). It is on record that the issue and debates on healthcare management and reform begun well at the onset of the twentieth century and to date is an issue still attractive much public debate. It is therefore important before analyzing the current Obama administration’s reforms to look into the past in order to see why this issue has not faded away for all these years. The first recorded debate on healthcare and social welfare intervention by the US dates back in the 1854 where there was a proposed bill that aimed at cautioning the physically challenged and offering them asylums. The bill was quite popular in those day’s standards and had even passed in congress until the president vetoed it. It was rejected by President Pierce on the grounds that it was not

Business Policy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business Policy - Case Study Example ort tries to identify the challenging environment that the company is facing in its operating environment in the recent months, along with that it gives an outline about the future strategic directions that the company might pursue. The report is based on three principal issues -1) The External Environment Analysis, 2) The Internal Capability Analysis, 3) Recommendation and Conclusion. According to the International Air Transport Association, the industry lost up to $8 billion in 2008 which is even greater than what was forecasted previously. The report uses a PESTEL analysis (See PESTEL Analysis: Appendix D) to scan the external environmental structure of the company. The business cycle of British Airways includes several parameters. This is due to the fact that airline industry is characterized by longer business cycle resulting from the lower profitability and for the lower shareholder returns. (Liehr, Nd, page 1). The marketing environment is constantly changing and with every change in the last few years airlines industry is being affected. The demand for the airline industry is highly income elastic. (â€Å"An analysis of British Airways Marketing Environment†, 2008) Thus the rise in the fuel prices last year and recent economic turmoil has affected the airlines industry in huge way as the passengers are avoiding more expensive air travels. According to a report by Air Transport association of America, the revenue generated from passenger travels for all airlines fell by 19 % during the month of February, 2009 when compared to February 2008. This is the forth consecutive month where loss is being recorded. The business sector, hit badly by the economic crisis are cutting back on their airline trips. British airways having ten flights operating daily between London and New York is among the worst hit. (â€Å"Lucrative Business class air travel hit by crisis†, 2009) The company saw a decline in 8.6 percent in premium traffic and 4.1 percent in non premium.