Repentance vs Penance

Penance is a self punishing activity in an effort to free oneself of sin.

Repentance is acknowledging our sinfulness, turning to a sin pardoning Savior for forgiveness and turning from self to Christ; receiving Christ into our lives through faith allowing Him to live His life in us, thus good works will be manifest.

Martin Luther acknowledged his sinfulness but in his early years he turned to "penance" for a solution. Whipping himself, denying himself of food and comfort, ascending steps on his knees, etc., but penance has no power at all to forgive and cleanse from sin, or relief from guilt.

After he found the gospel in the Bible, he still preached about the offensive character of sin, but now he also found the Savior. Now he taught his students that it is impossible for man, by his own works, to lessen its guilt or evade its punishment. Nothing but repentance toward God and faith in Christ can save the sinner. The grace of Christ cannot be purchased; it is a free gift. Luther counseled the people not to buy indulgences, but to look in faith to a crucified Redeemer. He related his own painful experience on vainly seeking by humiliation and penance to secure salvation, and assured his hearers that it was by looking away from himself and believing in Christ that he found peace and joy. {see GC 129}

Going out to conquer.

What is another way to look at those battles of Israel as a "type"?
We have discussed them as the battle of evicting sin (which God's power and grace enables us to do) from our lives.

But there is another way to see them as a "type".

In this world, we too, like Israel as they were entering Canaan, are surrounded with many well fortified cities filled with people who were not connected with God or His ways.

We are commissioned to go forth to conquer!
Not with metal swords or modern weaponry, but with the Word of God in our hands and in our minds and hearts.

In Rev. 6.2 the early Christian church rides forth on a white horse.
Rev. 6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

What beautiful symbolism.
The church of Christ, justified and full of the joy and enthusiasm embracing the wonder of the newly ratified gospel, ride forth in white purity to spread the good news to all the nations as a rescue mission, of those lost in their sin.
They have bows and arrows.
In DA 255, we read of " arrows of truth pierce to the soul, breaking through the barriers of selfishness, and working contrition, and finally gratitude to the Saviour.
And GC 90 "As arrows from the Lord's quiver, the Reformer's words pierced their hearts.
GW 151 Although no human eye can see the path of the arrow of truth, who can say that the arrow has not sped to the mark, and pierced the souls of those who listened?.. the truth has silently cut its way to the heart. God has spoken to the soul..

Then there are crowns! Symbolizing victory in Christ.

God has given the gift of salvation, to all who by faith, trust and faithfulness claim that gift. It was bought by the blood of the Lamb!

It is only through Him that we are dressed in white righteousness, and enabled to go forth to proclaim the gospel news to others

They told us to change our light bulbs to fluorescents to stop global warming. I went, huh? They don't save very much. They had mercury in them. Now you can't really find them as LEDs took over. LEDs save more, but still, setting your thermostat one degree different would overwhelm any savings. They said LEDs would last 10 years or more. My experience has been if they last a few weeks, several don't last 3 years.

I read they launch many satellites to monitor methane, a global warming gas.

Question:
Lots of energy is expended with each space launch. How many incandescent light bulbs need to be changed to LEDs to make up for one satellite launch?

ChatGPT:

Step 1: Estimate the energy consumption of a satellite launch.
To launch a satellite, you typically use a rocket. A typical rocket launch consumes about 300 tons of fuel and releases about 1,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. For simplicity, let’s focus on the energy aspect of the launch.
The energy consumption of a rocket launch is enormous, but let’s try to get an estimate of the total energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh). The energy needed to launch a satellite (including the energy to overcome Earth's gravity) can be roughly calculated from the fuel’s energy content. The fuel used in rockets (like RP-1 or liquid hydrogen) has an energy density of around 44 MJ/kg (megajoules per kilogram).
Let’s assume a mid-sized rocket like SpaceX's Falcon 9 uses approximately 500 tons of RP-1 and liquid oxygen as fuel for the launch.
• 500 tons = 500,000 kg
• Energy content of rocket fuel: 44 MJ/kg
Total energy from fuel = 500,000 kg × 44 MJ/kg = 22,000,000 MJ (megajoules)
To convert that into kWh (1 kWh = 3.6 MJ):
22,000,000 MJ ÷ 3.6 = 6,111,111 kWh

Step 2: Energy saved by switching from incandescent bulbs to LEDs.
Now, let’s consider the energy savings from switching from incandescent bulbs to LED bulbs.
• Incandescent bulb: A typical 60-watt incandescent bulb uses 60 watts of power.
• LED bulb: A comparable LED bulb uses about 10 watts.
So, switching one incandescent bulb to an LED saves:
60 W - 10 W = 50 watts.

If you use the bulb for 5 hours per day:
• Daily savings = 50 W × 5 hours = 250 watt-hours (0.25 kWh) per day.
• Annual savings = 0.25 kWh × 365 = 91.25 kWh per year.

Step 3: Calculate how many bulbs need to be changed to offset the energy from a satellite launch.
Now, we need to figure out how many bulbs switched to LEDs would equal the energy used in one satellite launch.
We know the energy of a rocket launch is approximately 6,111,111 kWh.
To calculate how many bulbs' worth of energy savings are needed to match that:
6,111,111 kWh ÷ 91.25 kWh (annual savings per bulb) ? 67,000 bulbs

Conclusion:
You would need to change about 67,000 incandescent light bulbs to LEDs to offset the energy consumed by a satellite launch.
This estimate is very rough and doesn’t include other factors like the efficiency of the rocket or the full lifecycle of energy used by the satellite, but it gives you a sense of just how energy-intensive space launches are!

Back to me:
Seems to me to be kind of like the inventor of global warming, Al Gore, or other global warming promoters, flying off in private planes to global warming conferences.