Discuss critically Paul's treat of grace in chapter 6 of Romans Essay

Discuss critically Paul's treat of grace in chapter 6 of Romans - Essay Example The epistle thus introduces grace based on the fact that human beings and sin are acquaintances, yet there is salvation that comes from the grace of God, but it is a choice. In this chapter, Paul acknowledges that sin has to be absolved by God for one to have a chance in eternal life, but it is not mandatory that grace is offered, yet it does not give one a free pass to the sweetness of sin. Based in Paul’s approach to grace and sin, the latter is quite compelling and is associated with a life that has earthly pleasures, which should not be what a Christian aspires due to the repercussions that are associated with engaging in the acts that contradict the life of a Christian and Christianity principles1. Analysis The introduction of grace in the Christian life is based on the choices an individual makes. Sin as described by Paul is unavoidable and Christians shall find themselves in it, but through grace, a Christian can be saved from sin and gain eternal life. The chapter addr esses sin as a life of slavery and Paul goes on to further states that without proper knowledge and insight, it would be impossible to live a life devoid of sin. The epistle faults humanity and introduces the element of human weakness in saying that â€Å"we are dead to that master† (6: 7& 8), which is a life of sin. ... The context of the epistle is trying to establish a logical flow that paints salvation as a process where the Christian has to make choices. The choices that are made in a Christian’s life have spiritual consequences as painted by Paul. Though we are given the ability to choose and dominion over God’s creations, we have an obligation to him. Part of that obligation as suggested by Paul is avoiding sin. This abstinence from sin is based on the idea that the body, being earthly shall compel us to sin. The body shall be compelled to the evil desires since it is mortal, but as a Christian, one should rely on the spiritual to avoid falling trap to the associations of sin. The grace of God can save our spiritual form, although Paul does not create a great disparity between body and soul. In grace then our spiritual being shall have the capability of putting up defense against the challenge of earthly desires. Grace is important to Christian life since as Paul describes the bo dy has an influence on the spirit and the spiritual being shall suffer from the transgressions of the body3. The Christian thus must make a decision as to whether their preference lays in being an instrument of righteousness or the contrasting wickedness. As discussed by Paul, life consists of several challenges, which are earthly and are part of what can be described as sin. Every Christian shall face challenges in life which should be overcome through staunch faith and living in the footprints of Christ. Different parameters of earthly life contribute to the choices one makes and contribute to spiritual and bodily adherence to Christianity. Conversion to Christianity involves several steps that must get the believer to accept

Employee benefits Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Employee benefits - Essay Example (EMPLOYEES BENEFIT/EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION (ERISA). The flexible benefit programs reduce the taxable income of an employee, as health insurance premiums are deducted from the paycheck before calculations of taxes. This gives the employee the benefit of a higher income for spending, and reduces the burden of the employer in making provisions for a higher income for spending. (FLEXIBLE BENEFITS. OVERVIEW). The key factors affecting the choice of benefits from an employee’s perspective are the choice that is offered in benefits, and the possibility of exchanging one benefit for another. From the employers’ point of view, the choice of benefits enables goodwill and motivation in an employee, and reduction in total employee benefit costs. The key role that communications plays in increasing the perceived value of benefits is that emphasis of the benefits accruing to the employee provides a feeling of caring among the employees, and this acts as a motivating factor that works both in terms of retention as well as productivity. (Glasscock, S. & Gram, K. 1999. WORKPLACE RECOGNITION). Gender is one characteristic that distinguishes special groups, and women form the special group in this category. Minority groups make up the second category of special groups, and may be distinguished, by several factors, which include color, caste, creed and ethnicity. (Griffith, W.R. and Hom, W.P. 2001. RETAINING VALUED EMPLOYEES). The key factors that need to be taken into consideration when designing a compensation strategy for special groups is that they not be discriminated against on the basis of their grouping, and that they be treated as individual employees with no emphasis on their gender, color, caste, creed, and ethnicity. (Griffith, W.R. and Hom, W.P. 2001. RETAINING VALUED EMPLOYEES). The executive pays have always been on

The Different Sources Of Finance And There Implications Finance Essay

The Different Sources Of Finance And There Implications Finance Essay The assignment attempts to explore the different sources of finance and its implicationIt describes how different structures and cultures affect the business performance of the organization. It identifies the cost of finance as a resource, budgeting and financing adequately. The application of investment appraisal technique and long term decisions. Shows the understanding of basis business and accounting terminology. Research Methods. Theoretical studies from different books and Handouts from our tutor. Personal academic knowledge about business finance.ACCA background. JS AND Co. medium sized retailer scenario. Sources of Finance Js and Co. must be very aware of the importance to use the appropriate sources of financing meeting the needs of your company. Sources of finance to business There are different sources of finance,namely : Short term finance- Trade credit Commercial banks -overdraft Fixed deposits for a period of 1 year or less Advances received from customers Various short-term provisions Operating lease. Medium term finance- Debentures/bonds Public deposits/fixed deposits for duration of three years Commercial banks Short term loans

Charles Dickens Essay -- Biography

Charles Dickens the British Author of the Southwestern English town of Land port in Port Sea was a very famous and well known author during his time. As an author he traveled to many cities. During his travels he had many children. Some of his books include: Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. The book, Oliver Twist, was about a boy who grew up during hard times as an orphan struggling trying to find his way through life. Also, what most people do not know is that the movie Oliver and Company has relations to the book Oliver Twist. The plot of the movie centers on a cat, which is without a home, looking for a family to live with and call home. The cat in the movie spends a little of his life living with dogs, which becomes his closet family. Charles Dickens was on February 7, 1812, born to John and Elizabeth Barrow Dickens. He was the 2nd oldest child of eight children. His father John Dickens was a clerk in Navy Pay-office and his mother Elizabeth Dickens was a well appealing woman that was very educated. (Swisher 13) As Charles was growing up, his mother taught him to read. His father saw him as a future genius and would have him sit in a tall chair and tell stories to his co-workers at the office. In 1814 his father John was temporarily sent to the London office to work as a clerk. During this time, as a child Dickens attended the school of Williams Giles. Growing up he had many responsibilities that included attending school, college, and maintaining a professional job at the same time. His parent’s income started slowing down. Charles’s father decided to move and settled his family in a town called Camden in 1822 to accommodate their bare minimum finances. The town was the poo... ... that demonstrated Charles’ intense passion to showcase realism in his writings of life’s experiences. After the writings of A Tale of Two Cities, he also wrote, Great Expectations in 186I, over which there feel sorry for yourself the sad sense of the of the Lower Thames. He also wrote Our Mutual Friend in 1864, in which the seep and dirt of Rotherhithe, its boatmen and loafers, are made to pass through the book with swelling consequence. Charles Dickens writings made him very famous. He used his colorful life experience to express emotional plots in his writings. The British Author’s success through his writings helped him to overcome his own personal tragedies. Charles faced many tough obstacles, but always over came them, no matter how rocky the road was. Today Charles is still not forgotten as his famous books live on forever for many generations to read.

Midsummer: Mind and Impulsiveness Physical Attraction Essay

The story’s plot (if there is any) was light. It was just about a guy (Manong) who took care of a bull and eventually met a girl (Aning) on the road. It was obvious that Manong was attracted to Aning mainly because of her figure, â€Å"The underpart of her arm is while and smooth†¦And her hair is thick and black.† The bull in the story served as a connection of the two persons. It was like in Chekhov’s â€Å"The Lady with the Pet Dog† (I just realized that I often cite this story in my commentaries. What can I do? I love this story). When Manong was having a meal with the bull on his side, he found the girl fetching water on the well and it was obvious that Manong grew â€Å"conscious† in her presence which leads to the idea that he likes the girl. But on my reading, he just likes the girl due to impulsiveness – physical attraction. His noticeable thoughts of the girl’s â€Å"breast† was the proof that he was just another normal guy who does this thing. Oh, I’m sounding crappy. Their conversation when they talked about their meals made their official connection toward each other (the one Aning confessed that her meal were just rice and salt), â€Å"They laughed and felt more at ease and regarded each other more openly† and â€Å"the while he gazed up at her and smiled for no reason.† And when the bucket of water fell they started teasingly blaming themselves. Manong volunteered to fill the empty buket with water because he thought that he was â€Å"stronger† than her (I found a sexist tone in this part though). Anyway, when Aning offered him to drink water from his fetched bucket he seemed to be more â€Å"conscious† than ever, â€Å"A chuckling sound persisted in forming inside his throat at every shallow. It made him self-conscious. He was breathless when though, and red in the face.† Aning also offered Manong to stay in their house foor some shade and to have some rest. Of course, Aning mentioned the â€Å"bull† to at least express a reason for the offer (a very common technique. Lol.) But I stopped when I read the line, â€Å"We have no neighbors.† I thought that the ending of the story was somewhat mysterious but it came to tme that maybe I was just over reacting about this one. Anyway, back to the issue, I think there was a great possibility of them being lovers. The closing lines though made me feel a creepy feeling, â€Å"He felt strong. He felt that he could follow the slender, lithe figure ahead of him to the ends of the world.† It felt awkward.

An exploration of evil and its development within the Macbeth play Essay

‘Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural events’ Macbeth, one of the most ingenious plays ever written that expresses the power of good against evil. It is a gloomy tale of a Scottish general’s murderous ascension to the throne, aided by supernatural prophecies and a scheming wife whose lust for power eclipses his own, and has precious few good things to say about the human race. In this essay I will exemplify the exploration of evil and malevolence and its development within the Macbeth play. In Elizabethan times, there used to be a natural order and a way of life. It was called the Elizabethan World Picture. This is a chain of command starting from the most divine beings at the apex and the most to the earthly at the base of the chain; everyone had a place, and a role to fulfil. All the creatures of the Universe were arranged in their proper order. At the top was the initiator of all and sundry, god. Below him was the divinely appointed King. The importance of the King cannot be over-estimated: on him rest the fate of the state. Below the King, and deriving their power from him in proper feudal order, came Earls, Dukes, fundamentally the top Churchmen and all the rest of the aristocracy, all the way down to the customary common folk and the servants, below the servants were peasants and the beggars at the foundation of the sequence. This was the hierarchical structure of society and when this is broken in the play, so is the natural order of the world and unnatural and evil things become to occur. Shakespeare shows when the rightful place of things is upset, then everything will be upset, until state of affairs is returned to customary. When Macbeth slays King Duncan, then nature went chaotic. Elizabethan order in the 17th century was Monarch ruling by divine right, and the worst possible crime was to commit regicide. Shakespeare tries to show us the great disruption caused by the regicide. Owls kill falcons (where Macbeth is the owl and Duncan is the falcon), dark in daytime and horses eating each other. The natural order is the most important theme in the play. ‘Tis unnatural, eve like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last, a falcon, towering in her pride of place, was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d’ Act II scene IV ‘And Duncan’s horses, -a thing most strange and certain,-†¦Tis said they eat each other. They did so, to the amazements of mine eyes.’ Act II scene IV 1603-1606 coincided with the accession to the English throne of James VI of Scotland who also became James I of England who was a protestant. James I showed a lot of interest in paranormal and supernatural things, he was also affectionate of people who penchant him and said pleasant things about him. James himself wrote a book on witchcraft and had fancied himself an expert, it is also claimed he persecuted witches and had them hung. So Shakespeare wrote the play on honour of James. Shakespeare took this into account and expressed homage to James by constructing it as a supernatural play by supplement witches, apparitions, ghosts and the Kings Evil and Kings Admiration. He also created the hero Banquo as one of James’s ancestors. This very much appealed to James and he enjoyed the play enormously. But what James knew was that his ancestor Banquo did not have entirely sanitary hands, he to performed iniquitous things in his epoch. The faith in the existence and power of witches was extensively believed in Shakespeare’s time, as was demonstrated by the European Witch Craze, were almost nine million women were put to death for being perceived as witches. The belief of the majority of people during the seventeenth century suggests that the witches are influential figures who can implement immense power over Macbeth; the intensity of the calamity is dependant on whether Macbeth is in full control over his deeds or the witches control the naive and inexperienced Macbeth. Witches, ghosts, and disturbances of nature appeals to the fascination of human nature, Shakespeare knew this and with this verity in mind, his intentions were to create the witches, and at the commencement of the play the frame of mind is set with the three witches. The Witches are associated with evil, as Banquo is quick to comprehend, and although their promise to Macbeth appears to foretell the good upcoming, it in reality brings him calamity. Even commencing Act I scene I the witches put their own words into Macbeth’s mouth. ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ The witches in Act I Scene I ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen.’ Were Macbeth’s first words Why are the witches’ words in Macbeth’s mouth? We are supposed to associate him with the witches and evil, this echo introduces the idea of a divination and prompts the question of Macbeths own self control. Is Macbeth in charge of his own destiny or are the witches enticing and alluring him, and taking control of his fate for him? The witches are also very erudite because they opt the perfect time to approach Macbeth when he is full of battle triumph and fresh from killing. They entice him in and he supplicates of them to tell him more, he chooses his individual fate in this particular segment of the play. ‘Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.’ Act I scene III The witches speak Macbeth’s innermost and intimate thoughts. They know exactly what to say to Macbeth and their timing is precise; the evil just seeps through right from the beginning of the play. They tell Macbeth prophecies that manipulate him in which disaster strikes at the end of the play. The witches are referred to as women with beards, entirely sordid and squalid in appearance, and also Shakespeare’s choice of words is amazing as it hangs you in suspense and leaves you wanting more. ‘When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?’ Act I scene I ‘When one wins, one must lose’ The witches on a few occasions refer to Macbeth as something depraved and malevolence, and on one juncture as there son. ‘Hath been but for a wayward son, spiteful and wrathful.’ Act III scene V ‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked comes.’ Act IV scene I The Witches and the apparitions also give Macbeth a false sense of security, they make him feel secure, make him feel protected and make him feel as if he can always turn to them, but, they betray him and lead him on knowing what will happen to him. They just use him for there own amusement and make him corrupt. ‘As by strength of their illusion, shall draw him on to his confusion†¦ and you all know, security is mortal’s chiefest enemy.’ Act III scene V It’s not only the witches who exemplify the evil in the play; it’s also the supernatural and paranormal things that happen such as the apparition of the dagger. Macbeth begins to hallucinate about a dagger covered in blood in his hand pointing to Duncan’s room. The dagger symbolizes the point of no return for Macbeth. If he chooses the path in which the dagger leads, there will be no turning back for him. ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not and yet I thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible to feeling as to sight? Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Also Macbeth visions Banquo’s ghost in the middle of the great feast and Banquet, he almost has a nervous breakdown. Lady Macbeth attempts to calm him down but to no avail. He sees his ghost as a sign for the future and he goes crazy. Shakespeare somehow makes you feel sympathetic for him. ‘Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! Act III scene IV Also, the witches show Macbeth three apparitions. One of them presages: – ‘Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Act VI scene I The second apparition notifies: – ‘Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of women born shall harm Macbeth.’ Act VI scene I And finally the third apparition warns: – ‘Macbeth shall never be vanquish’d be until Great Birnham wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him’ Act VI scene I In the end, all of these apparitions come to pass and Macbeth was warned about them in advanced. Macbeth did be cautious of Macduff but in the end he did not massacre or kill him, and he did not take into precaution the guarding of Great Birnham Wood. Also, the witches only warned him of things to come; they did not tell him how to transaction with them†¦ At the commencement of the play, Macbeth is regarded as the most honoured men in Scotland. He had just won a victorious battle and was referred to as a dignified and courageous man. ‘For brave Macbeth, he well deserves that name’ Act I scene II At first, Macbeth felt he had no reason to kill King Duncan; he deeply cared and esteemed Duncan and the witches’ prophecies which stated that in the future, he will become king. ‘If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir.’ But as the play grew on, with Lady Macbeth pushing Macbeth and testing his manly hood, Macbeth soon becomes a cerebral, sadistic and merciless king. The witch’s were only partially to blame for Macbeth’s downfall; Macbeth himself did the dirty deeds. Macbeth is not naturally inclined to perform malicious and spiteful deeds, but he deeply desires supremacy and power. Macbeth’s character is physically strong and mentally weak, and it is this weakness that instigates the downfall and change of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth forces him to make the wrong choices, which puts his leadership at steak. She is mostly responsible for the evil doings of Macbeth. This line shows that she considers Macbeth as a ‘wimp’, and a feeble human. ‘Is too full o’ the milk of human kindness’ Macbeth’s manliness is always being tested so he has no choice but to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth transforms Macbeth into a greedy, cold-hearted human being; by saying things such as â€Å"Are you a man?† She undermines his masculinity, to make him feel at fault, and have it her way. ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’ Act I scene VII ‘Thou esteem’st the ornament of life and live a coward in thine own esteem’ Although not a â€Å"secret, black, and midnight hag†, as an evil female, Lady Macbeth could be contemplated as a witch according to the standards of Shakespeare’s day. She is more heartless than Macbeth, she lures him and the killing of Duncan was mainly because of her desires to be queen. ‘Look like the innocent flower, But be the Serpent under’t.’ Act I scene V Also, the fact that she works with the witches to influence Macbeth suggests that she is at least indirectly allied with them. At the start of the play Lady Macbeth appears as a nice, beautiful and respectful wife but underneath lies a conniving, deceitful woman. Lady Macbeth’s strong power is used to effortlessly persuade her weak husband. Her strength inspires him at the beginning of the play, but after he realizes his actions he persists with his bloody path. Macbeth does say that he does not want to prolong the foolishness but again is persuaded by Lady Macbeth. Macbeth, while he clearly likes the idea, and even shares her desire, falters on holding his promise to her until she threatens his manhood directly, she is so single-minded in her purpose that she can sacrifice all her femininity and all human feelings in her lust for power ‘We will proceed no further in this business†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢At I scene VII Lady Macbeth is blinded by her own ambition and her own pride, she will not see the proper and loyal side to life, and she would even take life from her own infant to persevere with her plans and her promises. ‘I had given suck, and know how tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gum, and dash’d the brains out, had I sworn as you have done this’ Act I scene VII Lady Macbeth is very manly on the inside, she is very cruel and would never relinquish in battle, it is like she would prefer to be a man than a women. ‘Unsex me here’ As the play draws to an end, so does Lady Macbeth. In Act V, we see Lady Macbeth falling apart, a downfall we later learn leads her to suicide. Macbeth, on the erstwhile hand, has forgotten his guilt and is ready to slaughter more innocent people. As Macbeth progresses with his evil acts, Lady Macbeth begins to go through an episode of insane sleepwalking, convinced that her hands are stained with blood that can not be washed off. At her suicide, Macbeth has already thrown away his conscience and executes even more evil acts without even admitting her to his conscience. The doctor says that the disease that she has cannot be cured. ‘The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? What! Will these hands ne’er be clean? No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with this starting’ Act V scene I ‘This disease is beyond me practice: yet I have know those which have walked beyond their sleep who have died holily in their beds’ Act V scene I On act II scene II Macbeth says ‘will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine making the green one red’ lady Macbeth then says that this deed can be washed away, she soon suffers from the same fate at the end of the play. ‘A little water clears us of this deed’ Act II scene II But Lady Macbeth does not have the concluding say in the end, and nor do the witches have the ultimate say; it is Macbeth who has the final say. The witches did not tell Macbeth to command murders and kill Macduff’s wife and children. In the commencement of the play Macbeth is a kind, loyal, hero, and at the end he becomes an evil tyrant. To Duncan, Macbeth is the most honourable and successful of his noblemen. Duncan’s gifts of position and land to Macbeth are met with his being murdered in cold blood. The thing that started Macbeth of was the prophecy that Macbeth found rather alluring was that he would be future king. ‘All hail, Macbeth!, that shalt be king hereafter!’ ‘Let not light see my black and deep desires’ Act I scene IV Macbeth gains from this foul act the fair position of kingship, which, of course, is met with tragedy at the play’s end. Shakespeare has taken the structure of Tragedy and imbedded its shadow into almost every part of the play. Along with the central rise and fall, there are many switches and unexpected turns of good and bad convincing the reader by the play’s end that the witches are right indeed. When Macbeth returned after completing his brutal murder his character had changed for the worse he became obsessive over his ambition; becoming future king. Macbeth then decided that he would kill Banquo because he was with him when he getting his prophecies from the witches, and therefore he knew that Macbeth had a reason to kill Duncan. Macbeth hired three murderers to finish Banquo. He does not want to kill Banquo himself because he cannot kill a friend and lose the support of one. ‘But wail his fall who I myself struck down.’ Act III scene I Macbeth changes drastically from the beginning of the play, he becomes much more evil and much more sinister from when the play began. He orders murders to savagely annihilate Macduff’s innocent wife and children, with Macduff only hearing about it from the Ross. ‘But I have words that would be howl’d out in the desert air, when hearing should not catch them.’ Act IV scene III When Macbeth hears about his wife’s death, Macbeth broods on life’s futility. ‘She should have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all of our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.’ Act V Scene V Even when Macbeth does get confronted by Macduff and his gathered forces, he refuses not to surrender and chooses to fight on and get killed. The honour and bravery that once run bright through Macbeths blood still remains to some extent. ‘They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, but bear- like I must fight the course. What’s he that was not women born? Such a one am I to fear, or none.’ Act V scene VII The language that Shakespeare uses is so powerful and so indulging and at the same times. All of his idioms have meaning and life and some of them are just so magnificent to read, the language used on all the evil that develops is outstanding and is not just put there for any reason. ‘I am in blood yet stepped in so far that I should wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er’ Act III scene IV The weather set in the play is also dark, gloomy and moody. On every occasion the witches are brought into milieu, the weather changes to dark and dreary. Always comes thunder before the lightning, which comes before the witches. And before every apparition, the thunder strikes again. I believe that Shakespeare uses thunder and lightening because they represent the power of the witches and the turbulence of Scotland. ‘In thunder lightning, or in rain’ Act I scene I Darkness, in our society, represents and is an indicative of Evil. For instance, a dark night, a dark place or even a black cat all symbolises horror and evil. Shakespeare knew this and used the witches, Macbeth and the in orderly Scotland as prime examples. Even in appearance the witches are ‘Secret, black, and midnight hags’ because they represent the agents of chaos. Macbeth is an agent of disorder, he murders and he consults witches, because of this he is described using dark imagery. Scotland it self was in shambles when Macbeth ruled, it all represented the evil. Scotland under the rule of Macbeth is described as, â€Å"shrouded in darkness†, by Malcolm.. ‘Sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rent the air’. Scotland All these descriptions of Scotland portray Scotland as a place where the agents of darkness have shrouded the land. In conclusion, there is a big comparison between the beginning and the end of the play. In the beginning, Macbeth was Valiant; Lady Macbeth was pure and sweat-hearted, Scotland was in peace and natural order was rightfully in place. At the end of the play, Macbeth had become a tyrant, Lady Macbeth had died and was cruel and sadistic and Scotland was described as ‘shrouded in darkness.’ In the end, the Evil reigns supreme over the good.