Ponderables

world events

2007-10-30T17:50:00.001-04:00

Every so often, I depart from the religious theme of the blog for something in the world. This citation from Winston Churchill in volume 1 of his work "The World Crisis", which looks at the conflict we call World War I, seems eerily prophetic in speaking to our battle against Islamofascism in the 21st century after the end of the Cold War.

The growth of the great antagonisms abroad was accompanied by the progressive aggravation of party strife at home. The scale on which events have shaped themselves, has dwarfed the episodes of the Victorian Era. Its small wars between great nations, its earnest disputes about superficial issues, the high, keen intellectualism of its personages, the sober, frugal, narrow limitations of their action, belong to a vanquished period. The smooth river with its eddies and ripples along which we then sailed, seems inconceivably remote from the cataract down which we have been hurled and the rapids in whose turbulence we are now struggling.

Walk by the Light

2007-10-27T05:19:00.000-04:00

"Don't you know that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord?"
"But so many follow their own fancies--that you must allow, Laird! And what comes of your candle then?"
"The fact that such men never look where the light falls, but always in some other direction, doesn't mean the light's not there just the same. They just don't care to walk by it. But them that order their ways by what light they have, there's no fear of them. Even should they stumble, they shall not fall."

--George MacDonald, The Laird's Inheritance, orginally published as Warlock O' Glenwarlock

Why the World Does Not Believe

2007-10-21T09:41:00.000-04:00

Many who from Sunday to Sunday, read the poems of a certain king brought up a shepherd lad, never stop to bring the truths of those poems into their daily lives. They read, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord only makest me to dwell in safety." Yet these readers never think that such a feeling ought to rule in their own hearts in consequence. Therefore, such might consider it preposterous that Cosmo should have such a feeling of absolute trust in God as he did. Such men and women build stone houses, but never a spiritual rest. And they may never believe it before they begin to do it.

I can hardly wonder that so many reject Christianity when they see so many would-be champions of it holding their beliefs at arm's length--in their Bibles, in their theories, in their churches, in their clergymen, in their prayer books, in the last devotional page they have read--all things separate from from their real selves--rather than in their hearts on their beds in the stillness.

--George MacDonald, The Laird's Inheritance, originally published as Warlock O' Glenwarlock

Body & soul

2007-10-20T17:35:00.000-04:00

The material part of us ought to keep growing gradually thinner, to let the soul out when its time comes, and the soul ought to keep growing bigger and stronger every day until it finally bursts the body as a growing nut does its shell. If instead the body grows thicker and thicker, lessening the room within, it squeezes the life out of the soul, and when such a man's body dies, his soul is found a shriveled thing, too poor to be a comfort to itself or to anybody else.

--George MacDonald, The Laird's Inheritance

Testament or covenant?

2006-11-24T18:09:00.000-05:00

For it was not sufficient that it was called "law," since it was also called a "testament." For no law is called a testament, nor is anything called a testament, except that which is made by someone about to die. And whatever is within the testament is sealed until the day of the death of the testator. And therefore rightly is it unsealed by the Lamb who, as a lion, destroyed death and fulfilled that which had been foretold of him, and had freed man, that is, flesh, form death, and had received as a possession the property of him who was dying, namely, of the human race. For as through one body all people had come into the debt of death, so through one body all who believe might rise to eternal life. Now the face of Moses is uncovered; now it is revealed, and therfore the apocalypse is called a "revelation"; now his book is unsealed; now the sacrifices of the victims is understood; now the offerings and the duties of the Anointed, the building of temple and the prophecies are clearly understood.

--Victorinus of Petovium, Commentary on the Apocalypse (of John in the Bible).

GCS: In other words, the Good News, the Gospel, the adoption into the family of God, made possible by the death of Jesus Christ, brings salvation as the inheritance. We receive His Life, through His will (double entendre); thus it is called a Testament. Believe and receive.

Famous Last Words

2006-10-22T06:48:00.000-04:00

"I prefer Lee to Johnston," George McClellan said on hearing of Lee's appointment to command the CSA Army of Northern Virginia. "The former is too cautious and weak under grave responsibility. Personally brave and energetic to a fault, he yet is wanting in mormal firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility, and is likely to be timid and irresolute in action."

Then came the Seven Days.

The Horse and His Boy

2006-10-22T06:34:00.000-04:00

"Child," said the Voice, "I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own."

C.S. Lewis, in his third Chronicle of Narnia, "The Horse and His Boy"

Two Rules to Secure the Fruits of Victory

2006-10-22T06:26:00.000-04:00

Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible. And when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number.

The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible.

Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, 1862, to one of his officers

The application, and thus the reason for the post, is not to discuss actual warfare, but to ponder on the application of these "rules" to the great campaigns we undertake in life: career, ministry, mission, charity, and such, because great endeavors always bring great opposition. Sampson

The Beast Cometh (666)!

2006-10-14T20:39:00.000-04:00

For the deceiver seeks to liken himself in all things to the Son of God.

Christ is a lion, so antichrist is also a lion. Christ is a king, so antichrist is also a king. The Savior was manifested as a lamb; so he too, similarly, will appear as a lamb, though within he is a wolf. The Savior came into the world in the circumsion, and he too will come in the same way.

The Lord sent apostles among all the nations, and he similarly will send false apostles. The Savior gathered the sheep that were scattered abroad, and he too will bring together a people that is scattered abroad.

The Lord gave a seal to those who believed on him, and he too will give one in like manner. The Savior appeared in the form of a man, and he too will come in the form of a man. The Savior raised up and showed his holy flesh like a temple, and he too will raise a temple of stone in Jerusalem.

--Hippolytus, On the Antichrist

It seems so close, and so real. Antichrist is in the world, and working hard to bring us all down.

"Who is worthy to open the scroll?"

2006-10-14T20:17:00.000-04:00

(Revelation 5.2)
To open the testament is to suffer and to conquer death for humanity. NO one was found worthy to do this, netiher among the angels in heaven, nor among ment on the earth, nor among the souls of the saints who are at rest; only Christ, the Son of God, whom he says that he saw as though a lam slain, having seven horns.

What had been prophesied of him, whatever the law had mediated of him through oblations and sacrifices, it was necessary that he fulfill.

And because he himself was the testator who had conquered death, it was just that he himself be appointed God's heir, so that he might possess the property of the one who was dying, that is, the human race.

--Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse (Revelation in the New Testament)

On writing

2006-10-14T07:49:00.000-04:00

Anybody can write a short story--a bad one, I mean--who has industry and paper and time enough; but not every one may hope to write even a bad novel. It is the length that kills. The accepted novelist may take his novel up and put it down, spend days upon it in vain, and wirte not any more than he makes haste to blot. NOt so the beginner. Human nature has certain rights; instinct--the instinct of self-preservation--forbids that any man (cheered and supported by the consciousness of no previous victory) should endure The miseries of unsuccessful literary toil beyond a period to be measured in weeks. There must be something for hope to feed upon.

The beginner must have a slant of wind, a lucky vein must be running, he must be in one of those hours when the words come and the phrases balance of themselves--even to begin. And having begun, what a dread lokking forward is that unti lthe book shall be accomplished! For so long a time, the slant is to continue unchanged, the vein to keep running, for so long a time you must keep at command the same quality of style: for so long a time your puppets are to bealways vital, always consistent, always vigorous! I remember I used to look, in those days, upon every three-volume nomel with a sort of veneration, as a feat--not possibly of literature--but at least of physical and moral endurance and the courage of Ajax.

--Robert Louis Stevenson, "How This Book Came To Be," Treasure Island

To My Books

2006-09-19T20:41:00.000-04:00

As one who, destined from his friends to part,
Regrets his loss, but hoeps again erewhile
To share their converse and enjoy their smile,
And tempers as he may affliction's dart;

Thus, loved assoicates, chiefs of elder art,
Teachers of wisdom, who could once beguile
My tedious hours, and lighten every toil,
I now resign you; nor with fainting heart;

For pass a few short years, or days, or hours,
And happier seasons may their dawn unfold,
And all your sacred fellowship restore;
When, freed from earth, unlimited its powers,
MInd shall with mind direct communion hold,
And kindred spirits meet to part no more.

--Washington Irving

The American People

2006-09-19T20:37:00.000-04:00

All the writers of England united, if we could for a moment suppose their great minds stooping to so unworthy a combination, could not conceal our rapidly growing importance and matchless prosperity. They could not conceal that these are owing, not merely to physical and local, but also to moral causes,--to the political liberty, the general diffusion of knowledge, the prevalence of sound moral and religious principles, which give force and sustained energy to the character of a people; and which, in act, have been the acknowledged and wonderful sporters of their own national power and glory.

--Washington Irving, Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

A Clear Midnight (Walt Whitman)

2006-09-12T06:23:00.000-04:00

This is thy hour, O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent [never at middle school when the dismissal bell rings!], gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best . . .

Walt Whitman

School reform

2006-09-10T16:03:00.000-04:00

To A Pupil

Is reform needed? Is it through you?
The greater the reform needed, the greater the Personality you need to accomplish it.

You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood, complexion, clean and sweet?
Do you not see how it would serve to have such a body and soul that when you enter the crowd an atmosphere of desire and command enters with you, and every one is impress'd with your Personality?

O the magnet! the flesh over and over!
Go, dear friend, if need be give up all else, and commenct to-day to inure yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, eleavated-ness,
Rest not till you rivet and publish yourself of your own Personality.

---Walt Whitman, Autumn Rivulets

Eyes of faith

2006-08-02T07:10:00.000-04:00

Those among whom this event occurred in their presence [watching David defeat Goliath] saw with their own eyes, not by faith. However, through faith we see God at work today, not as they did but in a marvelous way.

--Tyconius

T. Roosevelt on writing

2006-07-31T09:34:00.000-04:00

You touch on one of what I believe to be the most serious obstacles in the way of doing good literary work in the present generation, when you speak of the press and bustle of city life, and especially of the tendency to write "timely" articles, and the like. It is not necessary to be a mere recluse in order to do good work as a poet, a novelist, or even as a historian or a scholar; but it is absolutely necessary to be able to have the bulk of one's time to one's self, so that it can be spent on the particular study needed. Nowadays it is rather difficult to get such leisure, and indeed it can be gotten only ba a man of some means and of great determination of character, if he has any widespread popularity.

Even more important and more harmful is the fact that the enourmous increase in the half-educated reading public, and in the half-educated caterers to this reading public, tends to divert every manh capable of doing good work from that good work; because as my own experience tends to show, one's literary work is very apt to be remunerated in inverse proportion to its value.

Theodore Roosevelt, in a letter to George Dewey, February 1898

Character and maintaining poprulation

2006-07-26T08:07:00.000-04:00

An easy, good-natured kindliness, and a desire to be independent, that is, to live one's life purely according to one's won desires, are in no sense substitutes for the fundamental virtues, for the practice of the strong racial qualities without which there can be no strong races--the qualities of courage and resolution in both men and women, of scorn of what is mean, base, and selfish, of eager desire to work or fight or suffer as the case may be, provided the need to be gained is great enough, and the contemptuous putting aside of mere ease, mere vapid pleasure, mere avoidance of toil and worry.

I do not know whetehr I most pity or most despise the foolish and selfish man or woman who does not understand that the only things really worth having in life are those the acquirement of which normally means cost and effort. If a man or woman, thorugh no fault of his or hers, goes throughout life denied those highest of all joys which spring only form home life, from the having and bringing up of many healthy children, I feel for them deep and respectful sympathy; . . . But the man or woman who deliberately avoids marriage and has a heart so cold as to know no passion and a brain so shallow and selfish asto dislkie having children, is in effect a crimianl against the race and should be an object of contemptuous abhorence by all healthy children.

--Theodore Roosevelt, in a letter to Bessie Van Vorst, October 1902
Roosevelt was appalled by the European population trends of his time which led him to think that many of the nationalities were declining in numbers. GCS

What makes a man?

2006-07-25T04:23:00.000-04:00

I was fortunate enough in having a father whom I have always been able to regard as an ideal man. It sounds a little like cant to say what I am going to say, but he really did combine the strength and courage and will and energy of the strongest man with the tenderness, cleanness and purity of a woman. He not only took great care of me . . . but he also most wisely refused to coddle me, and made me feel that I must force myself to hold my own with other boys and prepare to do the rought work of the world. I cannot say that he ever put it into words, but he certainly gave me the feeling that I was always to be both decent and manly, and that if I were manly nobody would long laugh at my being decent.

--Theodore Roosevelt, in a November 1900 letter to Edward Martin

great endeavors

2006-07-12T06:36:00.000-04:00

As with many new things that I must overcome, it seems the hardest part is simply taking the first step. I find myself caught in a trance while I stand and stare at the mountain's steep snowy base. I'm looking for stairs covered in red carpet to lead me to the top. I want to prevail, but I do not want to cimmit the energy or suffer the pain that it requires to ascend the peak.

I picture myself standing on top of this mountain, shaking my walking stick in victory, looking back down at the springs of life and saying, "Yes, I crested another peak, that's one less mountain I must climb."

Peter DeLeo, Survive!, his story of crashing in the Sierra Nevadas and walking through the wilderness of ice and snow for thirteen days to reach civilization and send help for two friends at the crash site.

(I highly recommend this book. It's an amazing story. I started reading it at 9 p.m. Truly I couldn't put it down. I reached page 241, the end of the book, and looked at the clock. It was 5:30 a.m. I had stayed up all night reading DeLeo's story. When was the last time you did that?

Back In the Saddle

2006-07-11T20:01:00.000-04:00

I apologize to those of you that visited my blog and found it interesting and worth a return trip.

It's been a while since I've put up new material. My excuse, worthless as it is, is that I was a first year teacher in Jacksonville's public schools and it took over my life. There's no way to get through the first year except to grit one's teeth and do it. There is so much to do--every lesson has to be prepared from scratch, which takes 2 - 4 hours each night, after being at school from 9 to 11 hours.

but now I'm a second year teacher, so I return to the blog with renewed enthusiasm.

Who am I? I write and publish novels. Two are in print: Rush Week and Tattered Flags. Rush week is about a college freshman pledging a fraternity. The guys in control of the frat don't want him. My hero is giving every type of discouragement they can think of--along the lines of brutal hazing.

Actually, Rush Week is a disguised account of my efforts to become a United Methodist minister. It was exactly like pledging a fraternity. 'Nough said.

Tattered Flags is about Boy Scouts doing a "good turn" in a Florida forest to clean up pollution. The environmentalists and media mistrust their efforts because they are Scouts and it was the Governor's idea to bring them in.

If you have interest, check out shoppow.com or amazon.com for Rush Week. As I get back to my publishing, I hope to get Tattered Flags in Amazon but it's not there yet. bn.com also has Rush Week.

that gives you some more insight into what I'm about and want to do. I tell stories to address the culture at large, and someday hope to sell enough books to have some influence in shaping America's values for this century.

And now for today's ponderable. It comes from Elizabeth Kostova, who took a fresh look at the Dracula legend in her book, The Historian.

WE have a proverb in Hungarian: "If a thing is impossible, it can be done."

I need to paste that one on my mirror.

The Valley of the Black Pig

2005-09-18T08:35:00.000-04:00

Sorry I've not posted in a few weeks. Here's another poem from W.S. Yeats:

The dews drop slowly and dreams gather: unknown spears
Suddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes,
And then the clash of fallen horsemen and the cries
Of unknown perishing arimies beat about my ears.
We who still labour by the cromlech on the shore,
The grey cairn on the hill, when day sinks drowned in dew,
Being weary of the world's empires, bow down to you,
Master of the still stars and of the flaming door.

I liked the ending because I saw it as renouncing the world in favor of Christ's kingdom:

We who still labor [in the world], being weary of the world's empires, bow down to you, [O Christ,] Master of the still stars and of the flaming door [of paradise.]

The Indian upon God

2005-08-24T06:36:00.000-04:00

I passed along the water's edge below the humid trees,
My spirit rocked in evening light, the rushes round me knees,
My spirit rocked in sleep and sighs; and saw the moorfowl pace
All dripping on a grassy slope, and saw them cease to chase
Each other round in cricles, and heard the eldest speak:
Who holds the world between His bill and made us strong or weak
Is an undying moorfowl, and He lives beyond the sky.
The rains are from His dripping wing, the moonbeams from His eye.
I passed a little further on and heard a lotus talk:
Who made the world and ruleth it, He hangeth on a stalk,
For I am in His image made, and all this tinkling tide
Is but a sliding drop of rain between His petals wide.
A little way within the gloom a roebuck raised his eyes
Brimful of starlight, and he said: The Stamper of the Skies,
He is a gentle roebuck; for how else, I pray, could He
Conceive a thing so sad and soft, a gentle thing like me?
I passed a little further on and heard a peacock say:
Who made the grass and made the worms and made my feathers gay,
He is a monstrous peacock, and He waveth all the night
His languid tail above us, lit with myriad spots of light.
--W.S. Yeats

The point of the poem becomes obvious by the time the peacock speaks. Yet Yeats misses a significant point of theology, and I'm tempted to append to his poem something like:

The great Creator of all that is gave His image to me,
I am man, yet He is God, wholly other is He.
He gave me a shape, but he has no form
His love warms like the sun yet he rides the storm
He is timeless--eternal--while my years are few
The Great Spirit lives on when my life is through.

Le Bon Dieu

2005-08-22T06:43:00.000-04:00

God has become to many of us an easy-going, good-natured, indulgent parent who can be coaxed and wheedled and cajoled by his children, and who can deny them nothing--le bon Dieu of the Frenchman.

We have become "familiar" with God; we are on "easy terms" with Him; we speak to Him and about Him as we would to and about our next-door neighbor. We scarcely know what it means to worship God acceptably "with reverence and godly awe." And with our shallow and emasculated ideas of God we get a shallowness and superficiality and flippancy in our religious life.
--John Daniel Jones

God wills it

2005-08-21T09:04:00.000-04:00

"Deus vult" might have been taken by the Puritans for their motto, "God wills it, God wills it." For that is exactly how they regarded themselves--as agents of the divine purposes, instruments of the divine will.

And there you have the secret of their pertinacity, their strength, their indomitable courage. The man who believes he is sent, that he has a mission, that back of his own will is the divine and almight will, is always a terrible [better sense: formidable] person.
--John Daniel Jones

Privacy

2005-08-20T16:04:00.000-04:00

There are more eyes fixed on man than he realizes: he sees not as he is seen. He thinks himself obscure and unobserved, but let him remember that a cloud of witnesses holds him in full view. Wherever he is, at every instant, there are beings whose attention is riveted on his doings, and whose gaze is constantly fixed on his actions.

Within your hall, there are myriads of spirits unseen to us--spirits good and spirits evil; upon us tonight the eyes angels rest. Attentively those perfect spirits regard our order, they hear our songs, they observe our prayers.

--Charles Spurgeon

Charity

2005-08-20T15:59:00.000-04:00

Perhaps a person possesses no bread to extend as an alms to the needy, but still greater is what a person who has a tongue is able to give. It is more important to refresh a mind that will live forever with the food of the word than to satisfy with earthly food the stomach of a body that is going to die.
--Caesarius of Arles

Patience vs. arrogance

2005-08-20T15:56:00.000-04:00

The patient person suffers any evil rather than that his hidden good qualities become known through the evil of ostentation. On the contrary, the arrogant person prefers that good should be attributed to him even falsely, rather than that he should suffer the slightest evil.
--Gregory the Great

Watered Down Majesty

2005-08-16T05:06:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wonder whether the very emphasis we have laid on the tenderness and gentleness and patience of God's fatherly love has made it easy for men to sin. We have made God's forgiveness so cheap that sin has come to appear a light and trivial matter.
--John Daniel Jones

Friends, Romans, Countrymen . . .

2005-08-15T06:24:00.000-04:00

In regard to our congregations, the old orator might soon see his prayer answered. "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears," for when the gospel is preached, we lend our ears to everybody. We are accustomed to hear for our neighbors and not for ourselves. Now, I have no objection to your lending anything else you like, but I have a strong objection to you lending your ears. I would be glad if you kept them at home for a minute or two, for I want to make you hear for yourselves this truth . . . God sees you as much as if there were nobody else in the world for Him to look at.
--Charles Spurgeon

Virtue and vice

2005-08-15T06:18:00.000-04:00

Virtue has often been crushed out of the front rank as vice forced its way to preeminence. The praying man often has to kneel upon cold stones while the profane man walks on velvet.
--Joseph Parker

Young man, are you striving to do good, and are others imputing wrong motives to you? Do not be particular about answering them. Just go straight on and yourlife will be the best refutation of the charges.
--Charles Spurgeon

The Ground Plan in Religion

2005-08-15T06:13:00.000-04:00

For the idea of God is the ground plan in religion. If the ground plan is cramped and meager, the building erected upon it is bound to be cramped and meager too. You cannot build a bigger building than your base will safely carry . . . And in exactly the same way, you can never build a big religion upon a little God . . . Our doubts and timidities and despairs arise from the fact that we have made Him altogether like ourselves.
--John Daniel Jones

Made In the Image of God

2005-08-13T08:42:00.000-04:00

There is only one single human form that makes a person like God, but there are many into which he can transform himself. If he is cunning, he has the face of a fox; if he shows a poisonous, dangerous face, he has the face of a snake; if he looks wild, he has the face of a lion; if his face is ungovernable, flattering and desiring pleasures, he has the face of a dog. Generally out of one human being and one form emerge a whole plurality of characters and forms. Thus, it is the goal to get rid of all forms--even if some people do not share this opinion--in order to show that he has the face that God created.
--Didymus the Blind

The Self-Examined Life

2005-08-13T08:39:00.000-04:00

Let us be displeased with ourselves when we sin, because sins displease God. And because we are not in fact with out sin, let us at least be like God in this respect, that what displeases him displeases us . . . He designed and constructed you; but take a look at yourself and eliminate from yourself everything that does not come from his workshop.
--Augustine

The King's Seal

2005-08-10T05:33:00.000-04:00

Christ is the seal on the forehead, the seal in heart--on the forehead that we may always confess him, in the heart that we may always love him, and a sign on the arm that we may always do his work.
--Ambrose

Greed

2005-08-10T05:28:00.000-04:00

Let none of us entertain the desire for possessions, for what gain is it to acquire those things which we cannot take with us? Why not rather acquire those that we can take: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, understanding, charity, love of the poor, faith in Christ, gentleness, hospitality? If we obtain these, we shall find them there before us preparing a welcome for us in the land of the meek.
--Athanasius

The Power of Love

2005-08-09T05:57:00.000-04:00

No storm, no profound danger, no fear of death or of punishment diminishes the strength oflove; in such happenings as we are tested, in them lies the happy life, even though it is deluged by many dangers. For the wise person is not broken by bodily ills nor is he distrubed by misfortunes, but he remains happy even amid troubles . . . For the happiness of life does not lie in bodily pleasures, but in a conscience pure of every strain of sin, and in hte mind of the one who knows that the good is also pleasurable, even though it is harsh, and that what is shameful does not give delight, even though it is sweet.
--Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, mid 5th century AD

God Is Watching

2005-08-09T05:50:00.000-04:00

If you believe that God is about your bed and about your path and spies out all your ways, then take care not to do the least thing, not to speak the least word, not to indulge the least thought that you think would offend Him.

(Suppose one of your mortal fellow persons, suppose only a holy man, were to stand by you. Would you not be extremely cautious how you conducted yourself, both in word and action? How much more cautious ought you to be when you know that not a holy man, not an angel of God, but God Himself, the Holy One "that inhabits eternity," is inspecting your heart, your tongue, your hand, every moment.)
--John Wesley

How often ministers and pastors experience this! People apologize to them for cussing or whatever in their presence, yet think nothing of offending the God whom they believe is watching over them to protect them from evil!

Human nature

2005-08-08T05:19:00.000-04:00

We kneel in our closets in shame for what we are, and we tell our God that the lowest place is too good for us. Then we go into the world, and if we meet with slight or disrespect, or if our opinion is ignored, or if another is preferred before us, there is all the anguish of a galled and jealous spirit.
--Frederick W. Robinson

Take Up Your Cross

2005-08-06T09:34:00.000-04:00

God gives everybody, I think, a cross, when He enters upon a Christian life. when it comes into the believer's hands, what is it? It is the rude oak, four-squared, full of splinters and slivers, and rudely tacked together. And after 40 years I see some men carrying their cross just as rude as it was at first.

Others, I perceive, begin to wind around about it faith, hope, and patience, and after a time, like Aaron's rod, it blossoms all over. At last their cross has been so covered with holy affections that it does not seem anymore to be a cross. They carry it so easily and are so much more strengthened than burdened by it, that men almost forget that it is a cross, by the triumph with which they carry it.
--Henry Ward Beecher

A Reason for Bad Things That Happen

2005-08-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

Like the emery and sand with which we scour off rude surfaces, evil and trouble in this world are but instruments. And they are in the hands of God. If they bite with sharp attrition, it is because we need more scouring. It is because men's troubles need ruder handling and chiseling, that evils float in the air, swim in the sea, and spring up from out of the ground. But it is under the control of the God of consolation, . . . the God of comfort, and the Father of mercies.
--Henry Ward Beecher

The Lord Reigns!

2005-08-05T06:30:00.000-04:00

Let the earth rejoice! The touching faith men had in the natural and inevitable "progress" of the race has received many a shattering blow. Society seems to be turning toward barbarism rather than away from it . . . The destinies of the world are not, for instance, at the mercy of fleets and armies--The Lord reigns. . . . It is not armies and alliances that settle the destinies of people. "The Lord reigns." It is God who decides the fate of nations. He makes low and raises up, and none can usurp his power . . . To believe in the active sovereignty of God is to believe in the strength and supremacy of righteousness.
--John Daniel Jones, 1865 - 1942

It was the two mammoth, worldwide, unprecedented in violence and ugliness of man killing man, 20th century wars that shattered the idealism of 19th century classic liberalism. Disillusioned liberals drifted into pacifism, turned conservative, or adopted the ideas of Karl Marx, adopting the methods of deceit and ready to use violence in an effort to gain power.

Dead Flies

2005-08-05T06:28:00.000-04:00

Just as dead flies spoil an entire pot of sweet ointment, so even one transgressor can infect the entire church.
--Fulgentius

Immediate Gratification

2005-08-05T06:24:00.000-04:00

The cluster of grapes in bloom, suspended from the branch, is not desired by everyone, because it fails to possess an immediate pleasure. Rare indeed are those who rejoice at postponing pleasures, for people attach themselves naturally to the preference of present enjoyment, just as those pleasures whose utility is not immediate but resides in future hope are reckoned not to have the same usefulness.
--Nilus of Ancyra

What's In It For Me?

2005-08-05T06:19:00.000-04:00

The common response of humanity is to recognize his divinity [of Jesus] when they enjoy his benefits and are convinced by numerous signs.

(It is not the same to believe in one who works miracles and is glorified as to to trust in one who is crucified, buried and taken for dead.)
--Nilus of Ancyra

Why be baptized?

2005-08-04T06:49:00.000-04:00

. . . he referred [Solomon writing in the Song of Songs] by "Pharaoh" to the implacable foe of our noature, the noxious enemy common to us all whom he drowned in the holy waters of baptism . . .
--Theodoret of Cyr

To which Origen adds:
For it is certain that the evil spirits stir up the temptations and troubles which they arouse against the saints, by means of certain souls who are suitable and convenient for the purpose. Mounting these like chariots, they fiercely attack and assail both the church of God and individual believers.

Looking for the Good Shepherd

2005-08-04T06:05:00.000-04:00

It is logical for the bride [the church] to enquire at the time of midday where the bridegroom takes his rest because when the light of knowledge became stronger, heresies developed which, while bearing the name of Christians, were nevertheless devoid of truth. This is the reason she is exercised and anxious to learn the spot where the bridegroom rests the sheep, the risk of falling in with the flocks of so-called companions . . . The bride begs not to fall in with these people since they give the appearance of shepherds and likewise seem to have flocks and herds. Of such kind are the people who hold the views of Arius, Eunomius, Marcion, Valentinus, Mani and Montanus [authors of ancient heresies from the first 400 years A.D.]. While invested with a Christian appearance and name, building churches, reading divine Scriptures to sheep led astray, wrongly tending their followers and thought to be companions of the bridgroom, they are instead pernicious schemers, providing the sheep with poison instead of nourishing draughts.
--Theodoret of Cyr

Let's add today's heresies to the list: Mr. Goodman, "if you're good, you'll go to heaven;" Ms. Swami, Christian reincarnation; Mr. Roster, "if you're a member of a church, you're saved--go to heaven;" Ms. Exclusive, "if you haven't been fully immersed (entire body under the water) for your baptism, you won't go to heaven;" Mr. Once-OK, Always-OK, "all you have to do is confess Christ once, after that, you can't sin no matter what you do;" Ms. Pac-Man, chewing up people in the church because it's her Christian duty to point out their faults; Mr. Death-Do-Us-Part, who will enjoy his sins and convert on his deathbed, cheating death of its victim.

NOTE to self: this would make a good sermon if I'm ever asked to preach somewhere. It would make an execellent revival sermon.
Mr. Goodman: Isaiah 64.6a, Revelation 2.1-7
Ms. Swami: Hebrews 9.27, Revelation 2.8-11
Mr. Roster: Revelation 2.1-7, 3.1-6
Ms. Exclusive: Ezekiel 36.24, Romans 10.9,10, Revelation 2.12-17, Galatians 4.9,10, 5.1-6
Mr. Once-OK, Always-OK: Ephesians 4.30, Romans 10.9,10, Revelation 2.18-29
Ms. Pac-Man: 3 John 10-12, Jude 14-16
Mr. Death-Do-Us-Part: Galatians 6.7,8, Revelation 3.1-6

The Church

2005-08-03T06:42:00.000-04:00

The church of God is like the house of a certain king. It has a gate; it has a staircase, it has a dining room, and it has a bedroom. Everyone within the church has faith and has already entered the gate to the house, for, just as the gate opens the way to the rest of the house, so does faith provide entrance to the rest of the virtues.
--Gregory the Great (A.D. 5th century)

The Ancients on Solomon's contribution to the Bible

2005-08-03T06:39:00.000-04:00

Proverbs offers those interested moral benefit, while Ecclesiastes comments on the nature of visible realities and thoroughly explains the futility of the present life so that we may learn its transitory character, despise passing realities and long for the future as something lasting.

The Song of Songs . . . brings out the mystical intercourse between the bride and the bridegroom, the result being that the whole of Solomon's work constitutes a kind of ladder with three steps--moral, physical, and mystical.

That is to say, the person approaching a religious way of life must first purify the mind with good behavior, then strive to discern the futility of impermanent things and the transitory character of what seems pleasant, and then finally take wings and long for the bridegroom, who promises eternal goods.

The Pursuit of Happiness

2005-08-03T06:35:00.000-04:00

. . . that, being overeager to attain perfect happiness at once in the society of this present world, they are unwilling to await the only true happiness which will come in due time in the world to come.
--Augustine of Hippo

How well he knows our time! La plus que ca change, la plus que la meme chose. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

Heartbreak makes us human

2005-08-03T06:32:00.000-04:00

Our needs testify to our immortality. And none of our needs do so more clearly than the need of our broken hearts for solid comfort and lasting assurance. Indeed, it is our heartbreaks that prove there is something within us which refuses to answer to material comforts or to be satisfied with anything temporal. This fact establishes our relationship to God, who has made us for Himself.
--J. Stuart Holden

What makes enemies (like terrorists) bold

2005-07-31T10:59:00.000-04:00

Our dastardly enemy has held us contempt . . . Is the enemy confident of his valor and contemptuous of our cowardice? No, indeed; he has too often been beaten, too often driven from his camp . . . The truth is that our communal life is poisoned by political discord and party strife, and it was that which raised his hopes of destroying us, seeing, as he did . . . each party's loathing of the representative magistracies of the other.

How is it to end? Will the time ever come when we can have a . . . united country?
--Livy, circa A.D. 15

When bad things happen to good people

2005-07-26T09:39:00.000-04:00

And what is trouble but that very influence that brings you nearer to the heart of God than prayers or hymns? I think sorrows usually bring us closer to God than joys do. but sorrows, to be of use, must be borne, as Christ's were, victoriously, carrying with them imtimations and sacred prophecies to the heart of hope. This is not only so we will not be overcome by them, but also so we will be strengthened and ennobled and enlarged by them.
--Henry Ward Beecher

More Livy

2005-07-25T07:55:00.000-04:00

True moderation in the defence of political liberties is indeed a difficult thing: pretending to want fair shares for all, every man raises himself by depressing his neighbor; our anxiety to avoid oppression leads us to practice it ourselves; the injustice we repel, we visit in turn upon others, as if there were no choice except either to do it or suffer it.
--Livy

The third option would be equal protection under the law, guaranteed private property rights, abolition of class privileges in the organization of government, limited government powers, and trial by a jury of peers.

On Shared Danger

2005-07-24T10:09:00.000-04:00

Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion.
--Livy

Not so the Democrats! The shared danger of terrorism is the means by which they DIVIDE in hope of regaining popularity and power.

Why? Because their goal is to destroy everything we consider "American."

Why? In the mocking irony of their name, Democrats hate democracy. They do not trust the American people, the voters.

Why? Because their professional politicians are Communists in everything but name only. And Communists hate the American way of life. They seek the destruction of America as the crucial action in establishing their global, Marxist-Leninist tyranny. We are in their way, especially Madame Mao Clinton.

Strong words, but not libelous.

Truth.

On Liberty

2005-07-23T20:18:00.000-04:00

In such circumstances, ... they would, no doubt, have set sail on the stormy sea of democratic politics, swayed by the gusts of popular eloquence and quarreling for power with the governing class of a city which did not even belong to them, before any real sense of community had had time to grow. That sense--the only true patriotism--comes slowly and springs from the heart: it is founded upon respect for the family and love of the soil.
--Livy, History of Rome, Book II

Should we interpret this as a criticism of multi-culturalism? Certainly it criticizes the idea that a nation can last as a mixed bag of cultures opposed to one another in many points.

But the idea that culture gels over a long stretch of time gives me hope that the stage of multi-culturalism is at work in producing a unified culture much as the 19th century melting pot produced the American ideals of the 20th century.

We will emerge stronger and more rich in our national life after the assimilation of foreign strains as we did from the very beginning when Dutch and German colonies were assimiliated into the English colonies.

One exception: the religion of Islam, which hates whatever is not of itself and declares perpetual war on all cultures accordingly.

Conquering sin

2005-07-22T05:58:00.000-04:00

No one will ever conquer his evil as long as he only shudderingly recoils from it. He has to be broken down into the penitential mood before he will secure the victory over his sin.
--Alexander Maclaren

A "Call"

2005-07-22T05:51:00.000-04:00

In addition to the first call by which we are brought out of nature's darkness into God's marvelous light, there does come to the Christian, when the Spirit of God works mightily with him, another call by which he is brought into greater familiarity with the Lord Jesus, taught more of conformity to Him in His sufferings, and made to be more fully a partaker of the height and depth and breadth and length of that love which passes all understanding.

To be saved and not to know it is a small privilege, but to be saved and to know it, nay, to know Him who is the resurrection and the life and to sit with Him and sup with Him and to feel that His shadow yields a great delight and that His fruit is sweet to one's taste--this is a way of living which angels might almost envy the favored humans who possess it.
--Charles Spurgeon

Peter at the fire

2005-07-19T05:53:00.000-04:00

What follows zeal without knowledge? A slackening of the zeal, following afar off . . .

If you are far from Jesus, you get cold, and then you want to warm yourself, and you begin doing it at the world's fires . . .

Are you among the number of those who are neglecting prayer in order to do more work for God? Do less work and pray more . . .

It would be a blessed thing for the church of God if for a little while she attempted to do less and worshipped more.
--George Campbell Morgan

Grace came to Peter's House

2005-07-19T05:49:00.000-04:00

Andrew followed Jesus, and having become a disciple, he desired to lead others to be disciples, too. He began, as we all ought to begin, with those nearest to him by ties of relationship--"He first findeth his own brother Simon." Beloved friend, if you are yourself saved, you should cast about you and inquire, "To what house may I become a messenger of salvation?"
--Charles Spurgeon

God's Love

2005-07-18T21:20:00.000-04:00

Now, our brother who opened the meeting the meeting with prayer referred to the difference between human and divine love. that is the very trouble with us. We are all the time measuring God's love by ours.

. . . I have the idea that our mothers are to blame for a good deal of that, becuase of their teaching during their children's youth. They tell them that the Lord loves them when they are good children; when they are bad children the Lord does not love them. That is false teaching. God loves them all the same, just the same as you love your children.
--Dwight Moody

And now, a serious thought (on capital punishment)

2005-07-17T10:30:00.000-04:00

It is strange that in Harry's world, which is contemporary England, which is a mix of Continental liberalism and liberty, that the good guys thirst to kill for personal revenge when capital punishment, that is, execution, is deemed inhumane and cruel. Capital punishment is not revenge, but justice, as determined by a deliberate proceeding that considers the crimes, thinks about what was done and why, and comes to a conclusion as to what would constitute justice.

They think themselves much more cultured than we Americans because they believe themselves beyond the practice of execution of criminals, even ones who have violated, tortured, mutilated, and murdered. So they put the criminals in prison for the remainder of the criminal's life, then dream of killing the criminal personally. Not as the result of a deliberate proceeding, in which evidence is presented and guilt determined. Not as a collaboration of several judges or a jury panel. Not allowing the criminal the right of appeal and review to ensure that the sentence was properly determined and fits the offenses. But as a personal decision.

In their despising of capital punishment, they have become vigilantes. For shame. And they sneer at us?!

Harry Potter

2005-07-17T09:48:00.000-04:00

I finished reading the book at 2:17 am this morning.

What a twisting and turning. But I have some radical thoughts on what took place:

1. Draco Malfoy is a sycophant--someone who sucks up to others and appropriates authority for his pathetic boasting. He has nothing of his own--no real strength. Of course he was incapable of murdering Dumbledore. He was a toy Voldemort was using to punish Lucius Malfoy.

2. Snape is really a good guy. Naturally, he told Dumbledore what Draco would try to do, and Dumbledore told him to let Draco try. It is in Dumbledore's character to let Draco attempt the assasination in the hope that Draco would realize he doesn't have murder in him and reform--cross over from the Dark to the good side. Remember what Snape said to Dumbledore that Hagrid overheard, "You take too much for granted."

3. Dumbledore ordered Snape to do what Draco couldn't--that is, when Draco had his chance and his nerve failed, Snape should do it. That's why Snape entered the Unbreakable Vow. But he had second thoughts, which is why he told Dumbledore, as overheard by Hagrid, that he had changed his mind and didn't want to do it anymore.

4. But Snape went through with it. The hatred on his face when he murdered Dumbledore was not hatred for Dumbledore, but hatred for what he was doing. Remember that Dumbledore, as overheard by Hagrid, told Snape he had agreed to it and that was that. What seemed like Dumbledore pleading for his life, which was out of character for him since he had just faced down the others without a means of stopping them, was actually Dumbledore pleading for Snape to go through with it. He could hardly have ordered Snape to do it in front of Draco and the others. He had to make it seem like he was pleading for life.

5. The key to this is in Book 5: Order of the Phoenix. When Harry fell for Voldemort's scheme and went to the Ministry of Magic, but tipped Snape off obliquely, that is, in language only someone in the Order could figure out what was meant, Snape contacted the Order and sent them after Harry and the others. If Snape was really with Voldemort, he would have claimed he was unable to understand Harry's statement, with his usual sneer, and no one would have suspected that he caught the meaning and declined to do anything. Then Harry and his five friends, fighting a dozen Death Eaters, would have been overcome and died.

Plus, Snape saved Harry as he fled Hogwarts. We have only his word that Voldemort said to save Harry for Voldemort to kill.

6. Dumbledore stupified Harry not to protect him, but to keep Harry from fighting to save him. Dumbledore wanted to die.

7. Why did Dumbledore die? He was old and tired, but that would be no reason for Dumbledore. He was the only one who could take on Voldemort one-on=one (excepting that Harry somehow has to be equal to Voldemort in order to stop him.) No, he had a reason, which we can only guess at and hoep Book 7 will enlighten us (and that we won't have to wait more than a year for the last book of the series.) Could it have been to restore Harry's protection--Dumbledore died to save him? It seems far-fetched. Anybody have another idea?

We know this much: Harry has to face Voldemort and end his career of evil/murder/crime/torture forever. Harry has been through six books and has earned that right in the readers' minds. The author cannot deny us that satisfaction, although how she will set it up and accomplish it remain as mysterious as ever.

I thought that Dumbledore would die before the end, but I had believed Voldemort would kill him, and somehow that would clear the way for Harry to stand before Voldemort equal in power, much as Dumbledore would. After all, the continuous comments about Harry's mediocre powers come from his enemies: Snape, Draco Malfoy, Voldemort. No one really knows what Harry can really do, except in Defense Against Dark Arts, because Harry is lazy and doesn't try in his other subjects. Harry's father was an exceptional wizard, and we finally learn that his mother had exceptional talent in other fields. The only thing Harry lacked to be equally as good was nurturing as a child.

Dumbledore's career is as much a mystery as ever. I thought that after he died, Fawkes would attach himself to Harry. But Fawkes left Hogwarts, which opens the question of just why he became Dumbledore's pet in the first place. I had wondered how Phoenix's passed from one owner to another at the owner's death, since Phoenix's have eternal life. Perhaps that will be a sequel (prequel?) after the series is completed. The author will issue supplementary books such as a biography of Dumbledore.

Finally, a note on Kreacher. Poor Harry, like Robert E. Lee and other Southerners, he found himself, through inheritance, the unwilling owner of a slave. Lee was already at work freeing his slaves when the war intervened. It is my fervent wish that when the battle with Voldemort is completed, and the Dark side is vanquished for good, that one of Harry's first acts is to give Kreacher clothes. After all, if he needs a servant, Harry has Dobby, who would help him as a free choice, and Harry would pay Dobby for it.

Character

2005-07-16T06:32:00.000-04:00

As she would be infinitely foolish who would build her character without thinking of the natural forces that will try its strength [like hurricanes!], so is he cursed with insanity who builds his character without thinking of the fire with which God will try every man's work.

[E.g.] God will go through our money to see if it has been honestly obtained. He will search our reputation, and our hypocrisy will not be able to conceal the reality of the case from His all-seeing eye. He will examine our title-deeds . . . .
--Joseph Parker

(Four posts at once to make up for the dearth this last week. My apologies.)

God's love

2005-07-16T06:27:00.000-04:00

Holy love, crystalline love, goes down and down into human necessity, and it is not afraid of the taint. Sumbeams can move among sewage and catch no defilement.

The breadth of love is determined by its height. Lov love is always very confined and exclusive. Lofty love is liberal and expansive.

The love of God is as broad as the race, and nowhere is there a single man in any climate, or of any color; in a congested city, in tropical jungle, or in a lonely frontier line where a pioneer has built a primitive home--nowhere is there a single man, woman, or child who is orphaned of a place in the eternal Father's heart.
--John Henry Jowett

On the method of the enemy

2005-07-16T06:20:00.000-04:00

For since their strength lies not in their own dogmas (beliefs), they hunt for it in our weak points. And therefore they apply themselves to our, shall I say, "misfortunes" or "failings," like flies to wounds.
--Gregory of Nazianzus

No One Can Know . . .

2005-07-16T06:15:00.000-04:00

. . . things such as life, death, sickness, health, affluence, poverty, loss of limbs, of wives, chidren or possessions. In all these it is impossible to discern between the righteous and the unrighteous before the last judgment. . . . It is because of [man's] foolish desires that he is compared with the senseless beasts and that he ends up becoming like them.

--Evagrius of Pontus, Commentary on Ecclesiastes

Big Brother watches

2005-07-08T10:54:00.000-04:00

Now our sin captures us by lying to us, by blinding our consciences. You cannot hear the shouts of the people on the bank warning you of your danger when you are in the midst of the rapids, and so our sin deafens us to the still small voice of conscience.

But nothing so surely reveals to us the true moral character of any of our actions, be they right or wrong, as bringing them under Christ's eye, and thinking to ourselves, "Dare I do that if He stand there beside me and see it?"
--Alexander Maclaren

Capax imperii nisi imperasset

2005-07-07T06:44:00.000-04:00

"An admirable emperor if he only had never reigned."

What a historian said about one of the rulers of the ancient world.

--from a sermon of Alexander McClaren

What happened to Jimmy Carter? the "best ex-president we ever had." In these last few years, his attempts at diplomacy--like the North Korean nuclear weapon fiasco--have reminded us all why his presidency was such a failure: his naive trust of Communists. He certified as valid demonstrable election fraud in Venezuala, and his criticism of the U.S. in recent years exposed him as one whose mind is overthrown by the Marxist worldview of today's Democratic party. Does he crave their approval that badly?

He should have stuck to building houses.

An admirable president if only he had never governed.

Thought on the Fourth of July

2005-07-04T06:03:00.000-04:00

If God, desiring to establish on this continent a Christian nation, devoted to Him, so as to put it to His purposes in the ensuing centuries, called forth devout English-speaking people of the world, brought them across the ocean, settled them in this country, and inspired them to cross the continent--

If God, to establish the United States of America, a free nation of free people, dedicated to a society given to Christian ideals, to honor His name, gave the land to the people of the world that He brought to the nation,

who is anyone to complain, including those who preceded the European immigrants?

(BTW: everyone on this continent is an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant. Ouch! the truth hurts.)

Christian mission

2005-07-03T05:58:00.000-04:00

. . . instead of installing hot and cold water, shower baths, tiled floors and electric lights in the pig pen, our business is to deliver the prodigal from the fellowship of the swine and bring him to his Father's house . . .

Some of these fellows . . . are preaching politics and reformaton, and already quite a few have exhausted the Bible and are now reviewing books on a Sunday night--they make me sick. Let you and me stick to the proclamation of the blessed old Gospel.

--James McGinlay

Pride

2005-07-02T17:51:00.000-04:00

The moment a man says, "I will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee, O Christ, though everyone else shall," that man already has passed a little way out of communion with his Lord. The trembling soul in the church who says, "I walk fearfully, I am afraid lest I should grieve Him, I am afraid lest there should grow distance between me and my Lord," I need not watch over . . .

: You are not quite so watchful as you were, and you excuse your lack of watchfulness by saying that there is no necessity for that carefulness and narrowness which characterize some people.

There is great need for narrowness when you are walking amid precipices.
--George Campbell Morgan

Wishful thinking

2005-07-02T09:51:00.000-04:00

We are often wishing that God would do some great thing in the world, and we look abroad for instruments which we think would be peculiarly fit, and think of places where the work might suitably begin; it might be quite as well if we asked the Lord to make use of us, and if we were believingly to hope that even our feeble instrumentality might poduce great results . . . Our Lord can make your dwelling the center of mercy for the whole region, a little sun sacttering light in all directions, a spiritual dispensary distributing health to the multitudes around.
Charles Spurgeon

On "love"

2004-10-20T13:33:00.000-04:00

Love is the Enemy's [God] favorite word, but we've robbed it of God's meaning. Humans love a new car, a piece of pecan pie, a football team, and a person who makes them feel good.

When the new car is no longer new, they no longer love it. Another car catches their eye. When their football team loses long enough, they no longer love it. They're free to choose another team. When their marriage partner grows gray and heavy and boring, they look elsewhere for love.

Don't you see? We've drained love of its original significance. When they hear the Enemy loves them and they are to love Him and each other other, instead of attaching to the word His meaning, they attach ours ... Love, as we've defined it, is not what the Enemy claims, but a transitory good feeling ... Which relieves them of responsibility for their actions.
--Randy Alcorn, Lord Foulgrin's Letters

Religious Conversion

2004-10-20T13:26:00.000-04:00

The reason why so many conversions are not genuine is due to the fact that they are merely external conversions, the result of exciting rant called preaching the Gospel, whle prayer for the internal work of the Spirit has been totally ignored.
--H.M. Sydenstricker, The Science of Conversion

Fear & Motivation

2004-10-14T09:37:00.000-04:00

I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you think about consequences, you always think of a negative result.

If I'm going to jump into a pool of water, even though I can't swim, I'm thinking about being able to swim. I'm not jumping in thinking to myself--maybe I'll drown. If I'm jumping into any situation, I'm thinking I'm going to be successful. I'm not thinking about what happens if I fail.

But I can see how some people get frozen by that fear of failure. They get it from peers or from just thinking about the possibility of a negative result. They might be afraid of looking bad or being embarrassed. That's not good enough for me.

I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life, I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it. I don't believe you can achieve anything by being passive. I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it's an illusion for me.

---Michael Jordan, I Can't Accept Not Trying

American Christian?

2004-10-13T15:14:00.000-04:00

... But I was neither [Christian or Buddhist] growing up [in Korea]. I wasn't really an atheist either. I was just nothing. I didn't think about religion. My feeling was, there might be a God; I didn't know and didn't care, as long as if there WAS one, he left me alone. I worshipped me.

--character of Ming Toy, in 'Left Behind: The Remnant,' Book Ten,
by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye

On Christian fiction

2004-10-12T11:13:00.000-04:00

If the book is replacing the church for many, what's coming next from publishing? Somethinbg on the order of Chesterton's 'St. Francis of Assisi' or Thomas Merton's 'Seven Storey Mountain'? not likely. Probably some form of 'God for Dummies.'
--Martin Arnold, New York Times, May 9, 2002

New Age and old belief systems

2004-10-12T11:07:00.000-04:00

One of the keenest observers of America has made the remark that "the reason so many new isms are constantly springing up is because the old Gospel is so hard to live." People are looking for a comfortable life here, and an easy way to heaven. they are scanning earth and sky for a royal road. The fight with sin which the Gospel demands is a fierce and bitter fight; and many men and women are anxiously searching for a way of escape, desiring to be "carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease."
--Maurice E. Wilson, written about 1900

Nick: and still so true today--in spades!

Relativism in the church

2004-10-11T06:47:00.000-04:00

Relativism reigns in the church--they improvise morals as they go. One recently walked away from her marriage because "the Holy Spirit gave me a peace about it." And her so-called Christian friends offered no argument! After all, they were to "judge not", and show love to their friend by refraining from disagreeing.

There's always been a few who disobey the forbidden book [the Bible], but there have never been so many who kept right on going to church and claiming the spiritual high ground in the midst of their disobedience.

They explain their sin with sanctimonious language like, "We've prayed about ti and sought counsel, and we feel it's the right thing to do." don't let it dawn on them that to the Enemy [God] what they feel is inconsequential. His moral laws don't give a rip about how any of us feel. Christians have no more power to vote them in and out of existence than they have power to revoke the law of gravity. Take cheer--an unholy world will never be won to the Carpenter by an unholy church.
--Randy Alcorn, Lord Foulgrin's letters
(Advice from a senior demon to a subordinate demon)

Tremendous change in education

2004-10-08T14:06:00.000-04:00

Within a single generation the framework of our education systems has been so changed that the language which expressed the abiding convictions of our ancestors sounds as strange in the atomosphere of our great universities as the language of a "different race of men," uttering the formulas of some "outlandish savage religion." Whether the change is for the better or for the worse is not, for the moment, in question. What we wish to impress upon our readers' minds at this point is simply the fact that a tremendous change has taken place, with amazing suddenness, and in regard to matters that are of vital importance to the whole wolrd, and particularly to the English-speaking people.
the effect upon the plastic minds of undergraduates of such words as those last quoted can easily be imagined. They artfully convey the suggestion that these young men are, in respect of their philosophical notions, vastly superior to the men of light and learning of past generations, and that it is by the repudiation of Christianity and its "lively oracles" that they furnish convincing proof of their intellectual superiority. there are few minds among men of the age here addressed, or of any age--except they be firmly grounded and estalbished in the truth--which could resist the insidious influence of such an appeal to the innate vanity of men.
Such being then the influences to which the students at our universityies are now exposed, is there not urgent need of impressing upon Christian parents (there are yet a few remaining) the warning of our text, and exhorting them to beware lest their children be despoiled through philosophy and empty deceit?
What does this sudden and stupendous change portend? Is not the very existence of Christianized civilization (i.e., the social system which has been reared under the influence and protection of Christianity) imperiled by it? Beyond all doubt it is.
--Philip Mauro, Modern Philosophy

Nick: these words were written 100 years ago. They could have been written yesterday as they accurately describe the change in American public schools in the last 20 years.

Testimony

2004-10-08T14:02:00.000-04:00

When I went back to my room I got hold of "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life." that night I just meant business, and it seemed to come so plain--old truths, it may be, they seemed to grip me that time. I had known about Jesus Christ's dying for me, but I had never understood that if he had died for me, then I didn't belong to myself. Redemption means 'buying back' so that if I belonged to him, either I had to be a thief and keep what wasn't mine, or else I had to give up everything to God. When I came to see that Jesus Christ had died for me, it didn't seem hard to give up all to him. It seemed just common, ordinary honesty.
--Testimony of Charles T. Studd

Ben Franklin's true religion

2004-10-07T13:15:00.000-04:00

I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian; and tho' some of the Dogmas of that Persuasion, such as the Eternal Decrees of God, Election, Reprobation, &c. appear'd to me unintelligible, others doubtful, & I early absented myself from the Public Assemblies of the Sect, Sunday being my Studying-Day, I never was without some religious Principles; I never doubted, for instance, the Existence of the Deity, that he made the World, & governed it by his Providence; that the most acceptable Service of God was the doing Good to Man; that our Souls are immortal; and that all Crime will be punished & Virtue rewarded either here or hereafter; these I esteem'd the Essentials of every Religion, and being to be found in all the Religions we had in our Country I respected them all ....
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

Being a mover and shaker

2004-10-07T13:09:00.000-04:00

The Objections and Reluctances I met with i Soliciting the Subscriptions, made me soon feel the Impropriety of presenting one's self as the Proposer of any useful Project that might be suppos'd to raise one's Reputation in the smallest degree above that of one's Neighbors, when one has need of their Assistance to accomplish that Project. I therefore put my self as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as much as a Scheme of a Number of Friends, ... In this way my Affair went on more smoothly, and I ever after practis'd it on such Occasions; and from my frequent Successes, can heartily recommend it. The present little Sacrifice of your Vanity will afterwards be amply repaid.
If it remains a while uncertain to whom the Merit belongs, some one more vain than yourself will be encourag'd to claim it, and then even Envy will be dispos'd to do you Justice, by plucking those assum'd Feathers, & restoring them to their right Owner.
--Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

It's about Jesus

2004-10-01T14:40:00.000-04:00

Who was He? Who did He claim to be? If some group of Christians made this up, that would be one thing. But they didn't. It was Christ himself who made these claims to be God, and the only way to God. If you disagree, your argument's with him ... but if he really died on the cross and rose from the grave, like the Bible says, we'd better take him seriously ...
--Randy Alcorn, Lord Foulgrin's Letters

The most important question everyone answers, and we all must answer this question--every human has to decide at some time in his/her life. Nick.

Christianity stands or falls on Jesus

2004-09-30T09:10:00.000-04:00

But here's the thing--Christianity all comes down to Jesus. It stands or falls on him alone. Not on the church, no on whether some people claiming to be Christians are hypocrites. There are lots of hypocrites. there are lots of counterfeit bills too, but that doesn't mean there's no such thing as real money. The point is, Christianity isn't about the stupid things some Christians say and do. It's about Jesus ...

Human history

2004-09-29T08:09:00.000-04:00

All of human history as seen by the Bible is the history of God in search of man. In spite of man's failure, over and over, God does not abandon His hope to find righteous men. Adam, Cain, the generation of the flood, the generation of the Tower of Babel--it is the story of failure and defiance ... but the Lord did not abandon man, and in His search determined to choose Abraham, so that in him might "all the families of the earth be blessed."
Israel's faith is not the fruit of a quest for God. Israel did not discover God. Israel was discovered by God. the Bible is a record of God's approach to man.
--Abraham J. Heschel

From Sol Davidson

2004-09-29T08:07:00.000-04:00

Without wood a fire goes out;
Without gossip a quarrel dies down.

hurricane haiku

2004-09-29T07:56:00.000-04:00

From my publisher, Greg Sampson:

A hurricane sighs
Thoughts on gray clouds cross the skies
Downward the rain flies.

Out the power goes
Impounded electron flows
Mighty the wind blows.

Gray sky, ugly doom
Sitting in darkness, warm coke
Dogs huddled 'neath feet.

Charley, Frances, Jeanne
Five storms, one state, 2004
Bonnie, Ivan too.

Four storms strike one state
Texas 1886
Last time it happened.

Comes the aftermath
Sweltering humidity
Clouds of mosquitoes.

It's not fun till it's over and we can embellish our hurricane stories for our friends and audience! Nick.

two thoughts on hurricanes

2004-09-25T11:11:00.000-04:00

1. The experts said Florida was due for a number of storms. I feel like a deadbeat whose creditors caught up with him all at once.

2. We're waiting for our FIFTH uninvited guest, Jeanne, in the last six weeks! This is Florida, unwanted guests who hang around far too long are supposed to come in the WINTER, not the SUMMER.

--keep smiling, Nick.

Lonely without God

2004-09-25T11:07:00.000-04:00

"That's another good reason to stay here [among the Indians of Brazil]. This is home. Money means nothing to me. That should be obvious."
"You don't even know how much [your inheritance] is. It's eleven billion dollars."
"Is that supposed to impress me?"
"It got my attention."
"But you worship money, Nate. You're part of a culture where money is a religion. People live in a frenzy. They work all the time to make money to buy things to impress other people."
"Am I included?"
"Are you?"
"I suppose."
"Then you're living without God. You're a very lonely person, Nate. I can sense it. You don't know God."
--John Grisham, The Testament

What I Wish They'd Say

2004-09-24T14:48:00.000-04:00

You're threatening to cut off my loved one's head, Mr. Terrorist?
Let me tell you something. We will hunt you down, your fellow terrorists, the leaders of your movement, and we will kill you like the vermin you are.
If you do not immediately release all captives, we will find you and there will be no mercy.
Every death is a martyr for freedom and peace, and every death makes us twice as determined that we will not give in and we will not run. We will win. And you know it. We will destroy you. Your only hope is to release all captives and disappear and stop your violent attacks.
Each time you risk making the mistake that will expose you and everyone with you. We are coming. Your days are numbered. We are closing in, and there will be no mercy. You are a dead man.

--what i wish someone would say when TV puts a camera on them because their husband, father, son, brother, cousin, &c. has been taken captive. Nick.

Predictions

2004-09-24T14:43:00.000-04:00

1. Bush wins by 55-58% of the vote.
2. Dan Rather gone from CBS news by the end of the year. They'll pasture him in 60 minutes or some such like all their other past-their-prime horses.
3. Courts will continue their drive to usurp all power from the executive and legislative branches of government.
4. Iraq will hold elections on schedule; Iran will become the new crisis point.
5. A nuclear accident will take place in Iran showing what the terrorists have planned for us.
6. Osama bin Laden is dead.

divine forgiveness

2004-09-24T14:37:00.000-04:00

One must not mistake divine forgiveness for indulgence or complacency. There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a blessing. Forgiveness is neither absolute nor unconditional. We may forgive the criminal; is it right to forgive the crime? I may forgive a wrong done to me, but do I have the right to forgive a wrong done to others? Unconditional forgiveness may be found in Pandora's box, a fine incentive to vice. Divine anger is a reminder that man is in need of forgiveness, and that forgiveness must not be taken for granted. The Lord is long-suffering, compassionate, loving, and faithful, but He is also demanding, insistent, terrible, and dangerous.
--Abraham Heschel, The Prophets

Grace is not cheap. N.T.

Partisans in enemy-held territory

2004-09-22T07:36:00.000-04:00

How often do you stay in touch with the King who is your real commander-in-chief? Do you get his direction every morning, or are you out there in dangerous territory on your own, ignoring his urgent signals?

How do you react when you're busy with your daily life and come across someone's urgent, now-or-never need? Do you tell the oppressed prisoner of the dark world that you're busy now but you'll come back to your underground espionage job at two o'clock next Tuesday? Or do you prayerfully rearrange your daily life to fit the calling of your true job? I have news for you, dear saints. Ministry is always inconvenient.

--From The Veritas Conflict, Shaunti Feldhahn

Word choice

2004-09-18T11:31:00.000-04:00

Gustave Flaubert, as quoted by Josip Novakovich in his book, Fiction Writer's Workshop:

Whatever you want to say, there is only one word that will express it, one verb to make it move, one adjective to qualify it. You must seek that word, that verb, and that adjective, and never be satisfied with approximations, never resort to tricks, even clever ones, or to verbal pirouettes to escape the difficulty.

NT: hmmmm, someone needs to tell MoveOn.org.

On Writing

2004-09-17T11:26:00.000-04:00

Josip Navakovich on writing:

Remember that a reader cooperates with you; the reader will daydream, free-associate and imagine ... words ... open the internal movie houses, concert halls, restaurants and botanical gardens in your reader's head.

Imagination: why do our government schools bore it out of our children's minds?

Humor

2004-09-16T07:23:00.000-04:00

From a new friend, I received the following quote:

I have been going quietly insane; lately, I've become more noisy.

How The Mighty Have Fallen Department: CBS news

Name Change

2004-09-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

I changed the name because blogs are thoughts spilled onto the virtual diary page of the web. But Ponderables still indicates the purpose of what I will post to this log: something to ponder.

Today's Ponderable:
To err is human, it takes a government computer to really louse things up.
--Ronald Reagan

Political Question:
Is John Kerry pulling a Bob Graham--embarrassing his home state's voters so badly by his presidential campaign that they won't keep him in the Senate?

Ponderables

2004-09-14T14:25:00.000-04:00

Ponderables are items quoted designed to make us think about the world we live in. Short, quirky, serious, and whatever. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post.