Tuesday, July 27, 2010

When the mist is in the gloamin'


"Gloaming" invokes such a magical time of day. A time between light and dark, dark and light. Old English from glom "twilight," related to glowan "to glow," hence "glow of sunrise or sunset." Preserved in Scotland and reintroduced by Robert Burns and other Scottish writers after 1785.

“The Heather On the Hill” song from the musical Brigadoon
Tommy:
Can't we two go walkin' together, out beyond the valley of trees?
Out where there's a hillside of heather, curtsyin' gently in the breeze.
That's what I'd like to do: see the heather--but with you.
The mist of May is in the gloamin', and all the clouds are holdin' still.
So take my hand and let's go roamin' through the heather on the hill.
The mornin' dew is blinkin' yonder. There's lazy music in the rill,
And all I want to do is wander through the heather on the hill.
There may be other days as rich and rare.
There may be other springs as full and fair.
But they won't be the same--they'll come and go, For this I know:
That when the mist is in the gloamin', and all the clouds are holdin' still,
If you're not there I won't go roamin' through the heather on the hill,
The heather on the hill.

Brigadoon is a lovely musical. The reviewer says -- When the hectic pace of the modern world threatens to overtake you, consider a brief vacation in the highlands of Scotland...and as one character says, "There must be an awful lot of folk searching for a Brigadoon"--Amazon.com: Brigadoon: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse…

Ah, but consider what the Lord Jesus promises, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16.33). Better than a Brigadoon...this is for eternity.

Conscience


"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions, but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."- Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird
Amazon.com: To Kill a Mockingbird

"For there is no respect of persons with God...For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also being witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another:" (Romans 2:11, 14-15).

Monday, July 26, 2010

Just keep swimming. . .


Abraham Lincoln told this story:
It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

Finding Nemo said it simpler. “Just keep swimming."

Big Hollywood - What I Learned From ‘Finding Nemo’

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (I Corinthians 10:13).

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Afraid of the light. . .

“We can forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Plato

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (II Corinthians 4:3,4).

Friday, July 23, 2010

Whittaker Chambers review


"Understanding that happiness is not a sufficient purpose of his existence, man recognizes that responsibility for himself and those he loves is the real challenge… "
Whittaker Chambers, God, and Glenn Beck The Daily Caller

A comment from "Liberty for All" on the above article:
But in serving others, don’t we try and make them happy? “Here’s some food and shelter, just don’t enjoy it!” Sounds a little confusing. Calvinism? I prefer Camus’ “Myth of Sysiphus” for inspiration. Keep pushing that rock up the hill, and it’s okay to smile on a job well done, even as it rolls back down. (Obviously Liberty does not understand the tenets of God's Grace very well. I believe that Christians are the only ones who can possibly be happy even in this present evil age, knowing and having hope, in Christ. After all, He said a number of times to us...Be of good cheer, based on the victory He won over sin, flesh and the devil. Alleluia!)

Whittaker Chamber's "Witness" is one of my top reads. I can't think of a book that exceeds his in thought, courage and practice. Also scroll down and find my posting on Sysiphus (April 25th). Existentialism settles for the mundane as you can discern by Liberty for All comment - Sysiphus and Camus may express a way of looking at life, but what a downer! Only Christianity holds out a glorious future and "good hope through grace" for the day.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Looney Tunes


Of course, you realize, this means war! - Bugs B

Grand-daughter and I are into my Looney Tune Golden Collection DVD. We love Tweedy, Bugs, Porky, Sylvester and those little mice. I laugh out loud when she is watching with me. Grand kids are grand companions!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Tisha B'Av

Roman General Titus destruction of Jerusalem 70 A.D. relief from Arch of Triumph
Tisha B'Av

Tisha B'Av (9th of Av) Gregorian calendar: Jewish Year 5770: sunset July 19, 2010 - nightfall July 20, 2010

Tisha B'Av, the Fast of the Ninth of Av, is a day of mourning to commemorate the many tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, many of which have occurred on the ninth of Av.

Tisha B'Av primarily commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples, both of which were destroyed on the ninth of Av (the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.; the second by the Romans in 70 A.D.).

In synagogue, the book of Lamentations is read and mourning prayers are recited. The ark (cabinet where the Torah is kept) is draped in black.

(I'm going to read Lamentations and cry with Jeremiah at the ruin of sin that man has embraced and is embracing today. And also rejoice in the hope we only find in the LORD,
"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness. The LORD is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him" (Lamentations 3:22-25).

Monday, July 19, 2010

Green batteries. . .

Obama’s Michigan trip highlights misguided federal push for ‘green’ auto batteries that cost and pollute more than market-driven competitors.

grayzel
Tell me why anyone would think an electric car would be green? Where does electricity to charge the lithium battery come from? Where does the lithium come from? I just have to shake my head at all the stupidity. (Me too.)

That Will to Divest


"In American poetry, the contest between glut and starvation is inevitably epitomized by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Between these two, Kay Ryan would of course choose Dickinson."

That Will to Divest by Kay Ryan:

Meaning: once
You've swept
the sheIves
of spoons
and plates
you kept
for guests,
it gets harder
not to also
simplify the larder,
not to dismiss
rooms, not to
divest yourself
of all the chairs
but one, not
to test what
singleness can bear,
once you've begun.

"Kay Ryan, poet laureate of the United States. To a poet like Ryan, nothing could be more of an anathema than bigness. Open 'The Best of It'- there have been great poets devoted to glut, but Ryan belongs to the other."

(I've got the 'will to divest' and have been trying to get at it all year...just can't seem to get a 'round tuit'. Do you have one? - Linda)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Turn your eyes upon Jesus . . .

"...I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" ( Philippians 3:8).

Friday, July 16, 2010

Washington. . just a little shake. . .

Was that an earthquake? Yes - wtop.com

But a future Day of the Lord will involve a real shake:

"For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:...In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tips of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth" (Isaiah 2: 12, 20-21).

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Jekyll Island

Other attempts were made to resurrect a central bank in America but none succeeded until the creation of the Federal Reserve System at the hands of a well-documented conspiracy. “The situation we are confronted with did not happen in the last few years, but began in 1913 when a group of cunningly deceitful legislators passed the Federal Reserve Act on December 24 at 11:45 p.m., after those who were opposed went home for Christmas,” Veon noted.

“[T]here was an occasion near the close of 1910, when I was as secretive, indeed, as furtive as any conspirator. . . . I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System . . . ,” wrote Frank A. Vanderlip, one of the men who created the Fed. He went on to become president of New York’s National City Bank, a forebear of today’s Citibank.
Townhall - Jim Marrs - The Necessary Death of the Bank of the United States - Full Article

It is the best course to acknowledge the One (God Almighty - "El Shaddai") who owns "the cattle upon a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10). And remember to:

"Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (I Timothy 6:17).

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Isaiah 14:11,12

Doris Augustsson: Satan som ville sätta sig över Gud! Lusifer var musiker i himlen, men blev nerkastad till jorden tillsammans med sina änglar.

Translation from Bing: Satan who wanted to sit over God! Lusifer was a musician in the sky, but became nerkastad to earth together with his angels.

(It rejoices my heart to see some of the people of my ancestral home reading and understanding God's Word. I'll meet them in heaven one day. - Linda)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Eclipse


Pacific July 11, 2010 Total Solar Eclipse.

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (Genesis 1:14).

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Character building . . .

"Always do what you are afraid to do."- Emerson

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

NPR - National Public Radio

The usual NPR news piece consists of a leftie reporter interviewing a leftie politician. Sometimes another leftie will be allowed to chip in with the observation that the other two lefties aren't far enough left. When NPR's well of leftism runs dry in the wee hours, local stations often retransmit leftism from the BBC. A real laugh riot, and we're forced to pay for every glorious second of it
Townhall - National Public Radio: Choosing Sides and Controlling the Terms Of the Debate With Our Money

"And He (Jesus) spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? (Luke 6:39).

Monday, July 5, 2010

Plutocracy

MEANING: noun,
1. Government by the wealthy.
2. A country or state governed by the wealthy people.
3. Wealthy ruling class.
ETYMOLOGY:From pluto- (wealth) + -cracy (rule). From Greek ploutokratia,(wealth, overflowing riches).

Seems that's where Socialism ends. Keep everyone poor except the few at the top while they are rich, rich, rich, and getting richer.

A must read is Orwell's "Animal Farm" where the animals start out equal but it all to soon ends with the pigs revising the rules because: "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Amazon.com: Animal Farm (9781412811903): George Orwell: Books

Don't envy the rich of this world. Read Psalm 73 and tremble for them.

"...these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches...Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!" (Psalm 73: 12, 18-19).

God instructs us, who live in the dispensation of His grace, to pray for men (mankind) that they may be saved, indeed pray for ALL people is His will, "God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:4). Rich or poor, Jew or Gentile, man or women, ALL to be saved, and in this age of Grace it is an open invitation to ALL based upon the atonement of the cross of Jesus Christ for ALL. Good news!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The cross liberates the soul

In New York Harbor stands a lady,
With a torch raised to the sky;
And all who see her know she stands for
Liberty for you and me.

I'm so proud to be called an American,
To be named with the brave and the free;
I will honor our flag and our trust in God,
And the Statue of Liberty.

On lonely Golgotha stood a cross,
With my Lord raised to the sky;
And all who kneel there live forever
As all the saved can testify.

I'm so glad to be called a Christian,
To be named with the ransomed and whole;
As the statue liberates the citizen,
So the cross liberates the soul.

Oh the cross is my Statue of Liberty,
It was there that my soul was set free;
Unashamed I'll proclaim that a rugged cross
Is my Statue of Liberty!

© Statue of Liberty - Words & Music by Neil Enloe
YouTube - Ivan Parker - Statue of Liberty

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The trodden down Christ. . .

The Cross proclaims that God is love, a love that conquers by the shedding of Christ's own precious blood for sinners:

In weakness like defeat
He won the victor's crown;
Trod all His foes beneath His feet
by being trodden down.
"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:2,3).

"For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. " (II Corinthians 13:4).

"...the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men"(I Corinthians 1:25).

Who but an omniscient God would have devised such a plan? "Contradiction of sinners against Himself"...thank you, Jesus.