Palace of memories...

“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” - C. S. Lewis

Live long enough and your body slowly betrays you and sometimes takes your mind and soul with it.

If you knew to a dead, solid certainty that you were never going to be released from your room until you were released, at long last, from your body, what would you do? If you were a sane man, just what would you, at long last, do?

I don't know about you, but I would figure a way out and if that way out was only deeper in, that's where I'd go. I'd go deep into my palace of memories and I'd use all my energy to construct a world inside that was made of the most vivid moments of all the years I'd lived.

The Centenarian: Arthur Warner McNair @ AMERICAN DIGEST

L:
It seems Mother has gone deep into her palace of memories. It must be quite a place constructed over 91 years of life.

Meekness and gentleness...

A yoke




Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ (Paul writing to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. 10:1.)

Jesus calls:
Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.(Matthew 11:28-30).

Have you found Him so?

LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED

There has been one in this world called Jesus of Nazareth, and it is he who says to you, "Let not your heart be troubled...believe in me," which means, "Come to me, tell me your troubles, tell me all about your difficulty about God, the difficulty of prayer, the difficulty about your weak will and failure." I do not care what it is that makes you restless and ill at ease. it may be the possibility of war, it may be illness, it may be business troubles, it may be your own weakness morally in the realm of your will--whatever it is, whatever is troubling and making you unhappy, go to him about it. He is the one who loved you enough to die for you. He said, "come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". There is no need for you to be unhappy and restless. Believe in Christ. Believe in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who came on earth to deliver you from that very thing and who has removed every barrier between you and God and who can give you rest and peace here and now. -Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Don't default on eternal life...

The Technium: Triumph of the Default

Defaults also remind us of another truth. By definition a default works when we — the user or consumer or citizen — do nothing.

But doing nothing is not neutral, since it triggers a default bias. That means that "no choice" is a choice itself. There's is no neutral, even, or especially, in non action.

Despite the claims of many, technology is never neutral. Even when you don't choose what to do with it, it chooses. A system acquires a definite drift and clear momentum from those inherent biases, whether or not we act upon them.


L comments:

The default of this world system is encapsulated as "this evil age"...
"with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thessalonians 2:19).

Don't default on eternal life. Seek the truth of Jesus Christ.

Wisdom

Men have never been so educated, but wisdom, even as an idea, has conspicuously vanished from the world.
-Whittaker Chambers (4/1/1901 – 7/9/1961)


Jesus Christ is our wisdom in this unwise world of men...He is rejected today but wise men still seek Him...

"...Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3).

"Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice or understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2).

Chambers' book Witness begs reading by anyone interested in freedom.
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan posthumously awarded Chambers the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his contribution to "the century's epic struggle between freedom and totalitarianism."

L comments:
Witness is one of my top reading recommendations. Chambers speaks much about the soul. It is well worth the reading.

A grand adventure

One Cosmos
Hurtling Toward History's Denoument?

I'd think a conservative Christian would feel blessed and honored to participate in this phase of Gods grand drama!

Some of us are! Honest!

Every week, every day, every minute, virtually, a Grand Adventure!

But we do have to live in the world as it is presently constituted, we do have to "take sides", we do have to experience the nit and grit of human emotions, some of which may include a momentary righteous anger and disgust, and yes, an occasional gloom.

Father

Meet Joe Black

Obituaries
> News Digest > Obituaries
There were no obituary reports on June 19, 2009

Death is again on holiday in Escanaba, Michigan.

In Escanaba Mother is quietly waiting for God's call and is surprised to wake up when another day dawns.

"O death, where is thy sting?" (2 Cor. 15:55).

I find myself singing: "Swing low, sweet chariot, comin' fo' to carry Mother home."

Jesus said whosoever believes in Me shall never die. Mother is looking to leave her body and enter eternal life with Him.

God's Son, Jesus Christ . . .

"...upholding ALL things by the word of His power,

when He had by Himself purged our sins,

sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3).

Peony

A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew,
And the young winds fed it with silver dew.
For love and beauty and delight,
There is no death nor change.

-The Sensitive Plant, Percy Bysshe Shelley


In Canticles the bride is speaking of the One whom she loves, and she describes Him:

"His mouth is most sweet: yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my friend" (Song of Solomon 5:16).

This is speaking of our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

He is "altogether lovely" and may our hearts be fully immersed in our love to Him - for in (His) love and beauty and delight, there is no death nor change.

Mercy, please...

"Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice." - H.L.Mencken

Hope...

"All hope abandon, ye who enter here!" - Dante Alighieri, Inferno

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? - Jesus in Mark 8:36, 37

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts..." - Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:16.

Good hope through grace....hey, that's the name of my blog! May I keep the reality of this hope foremost in my thinking as I live this day and into tomorrow, and into tomorrow's tomorrow, and...

Need to know about this hope? Click on link below for a reason of this hope starting with the acceptance of God's free gift of salvation.
Grace Life Bible Church

Fury

The Furies of Iran @ AMERICAN DIGEST

Who was it who said that the condition of any civilization can be at once appraised by the station of their women?

John Newton

A quote from John Newton @ age 82:

My memory is nearly gone, but I remember 2 things. That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.


Newton's tombstone reads, "John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy."

But a far greater testimony outlives Newton in the most famous of the hundreds of hymns he wrote:


Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come.
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

YouTube - Amazing Grace - Wintley Phipps

Sweetness of the lips...

"The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning" (KJV Proverbs 16:21).

"The wise man is known by his common sense, and a pleasant teacher is the best" (The Living Bible).

Are our lips sweet?

The way...

"...the way of the evil...who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness" (Proverbs 2:13).

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light" (Romans 13:12).

"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11).

"Jesus saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me (John 14:6).

Apple Blossom Time

I'LL BE WITH YOU IN APPLE BLOSSOM TIME
(Neville Fleeson / Albert Von Tilzer)

I'll be with you in apple blossom time.
I'll be with you to change your name to mine.
One day in May, I'll come and say
Happy the bride the sun shines on today.
What a wonderful wedding there will be.
What a wonderful day for you and me.
Church bells will chime,
You will be mine,
In apple blossom time.


When a little girl, I would sing this song standing on top of the pump-house overlooking the pasture and the lovely little valley behind our farm. Twenty years later I was married in May but did not remember the seeming harbinger of my wedding day.

The picture was taken early June (nature always a bit slower in the UP) in the orchard of Betsy and Ed's farm next to our place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

YouTube - I'll be with you in apple blossom time-The Andrews Sisters:

All we need is love...

"The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (Jeremiah 31:3).

"Remember, O LORD, Thy tender mercies and Thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old" (Psalm 25:6).

Prayer - - My Declaration of Dependence.

Praying Ephesians 1:15-23:

Heavenly Father,

In the name of Jesus Christ,

I praise and thank You for all of the spiritual blessings you have given me, in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus .

I thank You for accepting me in the Beloved, and that You have redeemed and forgiven me of all my sins; past, present, and future.

I praise You for abounding toward me in wisdom and foresight as well as revealing the mystery of Your will.

I thank You for giving me an inheritance in Jesus Christ and sealing me with Your Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption.

Open the eyes of my understanding that I might fully comprehend and appreciate the hope of Your calling.

Help me to understand the riches and glory and the exceeding greatness of Your power toward me because I believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again in payment of my sin.

Thank You for giving me a position in Your exalted Son.

Amen

Whose servant are you?

"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage" KJV (2 Peter 2:19).

Contemporary version:

"They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corrupt habits" - Twentieth Century NT: "for a man is a slave of whatever overpowers him" - Moffatt
(2 Peter 2:19).

Additional verse to cement our thinking:

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" (Romans 6:16)

Mother

Mother is 91 years old. She is now residing in a nursing care facility after a stroke left her unable to care for herself. The stroke happened February 7th of this year. Her heart is not functioning on the upper part and it allowed blood to pool and then clot which moved to her brain.

She is a woman of pioneering strength. Six children raised to adulthood, one husband, who she said was her biggest child, milking cows, preparing the milk for the creamery with pumped water heated on a wood stove, wringer washer heated the same, then clothes hung on the line, garden and canning etc, etc, etc.

Mother was the second child of 14. Her early life was one of caring for children and preparing for necessary food needs. The 8 girls were of healthy stock and some were very beautiful young women. They had dreams and hope for their future. All married and had families.

Today Mother is the oldest of the four living sisters. Her independence taken from her is a hard blow, and she is reeling coming to grips with her dependence on others.

Mother is a woman of faith in Jesus Christ. Her circumstances has obscured the sweet relationship with her Lord, and she is yearning for the communion again. Perhaps it will be when her soul leaves her body and she will be present with her Lord, but my hope is that she will once more find this comfort on this side of glory.

Easy livin'

Let’s just stand on the truth of what God’s Word says, and base our life on that, and not live by circumstances, and by what we can see, and feel, and touch, but let’s live in the reality of what God’s Word says!

Jason's newest Cub's store

clarkstreetsports.com

Located just across from Wrigley Field. If you go to a Cubs game be sure to drop in and say hello to Jason. Buying a tee-shirt is optional. Mention my name...probably won't get you a discount but couldn't hurt. : )

The Inner Man

Praying The Powerful Prayers Of Paul
(my notes from Pastor Bryan Ross message)

“That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16).

grant = give
riches of His glory = grace never runs out
strengthened = made strong
Spiritual strength with might = power
by His spirit = Holy Spirit
in the inner man = in our soul and spirit;
not in the outward man = our flesh and senses, our temporary tent
unsaved = body, soul and spirit but the spirit is dead
saved = body, soul and spirit is alive unto God

How do we know we are saved?
Essence with essence - God’s spirit with our spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22). “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God“ (Romans 6:16 ).

The power of God is in the transforming message for everyone
to be changed from death unto life.

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe" (1Thessalonians 2:13).

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost (Romans 15:13).

If you had your choice to be healthy, wealthy, and all your wants realized in this present world, or to be “strengthened with all might, according to His (God’s) glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness(Colossians 1:11) in the inner man" -- which would you choose?

Violas

Late Abortionist

FORGOTTEN PROPHETS: "Tuesday, June 02, 2009

It really is a complicated question. Is it murder, killing a late-term abortionist? Of course it is, in the sense that it is unlawful. But the more precise term is assassination. Is it wrong, in that we are told to love our enemies? That Ehud is called a savior of Israel in the Bible, when he assassinated the king of Moab, well, that's Old Testament. Not a cop out. Jesus gives us other commandments, as, to love our enemies. Does this mean, love the enemies of our children? Does this mean, allow enemies to kill our children? -- or any other of the little ones whom Jesus would suffer to come unto him? Are we told to defend the defenseless? I'm sure we are, somewhere, although that may be OT as well -- but uncountermanded.

Do abortionists kill babies? Once we get around the nonsense of defining what a baby is, the answer is, yes, they certainly do kill babies. Young humans, as yet unborn, but human in the sense that an eagle egg is an eagle, and its destruction is a felony. No mystery there, only embarrassment and inconsistency. Human in terms of DNA. Human in terms of the natural course of human development. Human in terms of the fact that it, the fetus, the child, is loved as a child, if it is loved at all.

Abortionists kill babies. So what's the big deal with killing abortionists? Rule of law? Laws must be just to be valid. Religion? God uses fierce warriors of righteousness. Ethics? What higher ethic, than to defend the defenseless. It is a complicated question, but it's not a difficult one. It's just a matter of how we respond to evil.

(Read complete article at above link. J asks profound questions regarding the state of our society. Always remember the Lord Jesus Christ is rejected from this world system, and the adversary (Satan) is the god of this world. Believers are the light of the world, and as it grows darker, our light should shine ever more brightly.)

Olivia

With patience and meekness...

Master, we would no longer be
At home in that which hated Thee,
But patient in Thy footsteps go,
Thy sorrow as Thy joy to know;
We would-and O confirm the power-
With meekness meet the darkest hour,
By shame, contempt however tried,
For Thou wast scorned and crucified.

J. G. Deck, quoted in William MacDonald, Worlds Apart

Who are you?

God doesn’t define us by our mistakes. Your mistakes aren’t final. They don’t need to be what define you. Let God define you in His Son -- in Jesus Christ.

Leap of Faith

How to live...

Be not thou envious against evil, neither desire to be with them. For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. (Proverbs 24:1,2 KJV)

Don't envy Godless men; don't even enjoy their company. For they spend their days plotting violence and cheating. (Proverbs 24: 1,2 TLB)

Logical Thinking

Amazon.com: Come, Let Us Reason: An Introduction to Logical Thinking: Norman L. Geisler, Ronald M. Brooks: Books

My hero

Whoe'er excels in what we prize
Appears a hero in our eyes.

-Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)


"Brethren, be followers together of me (Paul), and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." (Philippians 3:17)

The Apostle Paul, Apostle to the Nations, my hero.

Anzio

Anzio is one of the saddest places I have ever been. (Comment on article regarding Hanson's visit to Anzio.)

Works and Days » Wandering Around Europe:


There is a beautiful American military cemetery at Anzio (Nettuno, Italy), an eerie place where 7,681 dead Americans rest. It is perhaps made the more eerie when one reads of the deer-in-the-headlights generalship of a well-meaning, but inept Gen. John Lucas, and the weird megalomania of Gen. Mark Clark that cheek-by-jowl tragically ensured that a badly planned amphibious landing would get even worse as it progressed. Meanwhile Patton was cooling his heels, in punishment for slapping two American soldiers. Never has such a slap cost so many American lives.

(Victor Davis Hanson)

Dahlia

Torah or Talmud, Bible or Purpose Driven...

The idea that John had to tell them I’m not the Messiah, means they couldn not recognize who the Messiah was and who he was not: "Just as untold thousands upon thousands of so-called “Christian leaders” today follow Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life as their authority for all-things-ministry, Israel’s religious leaders during the time of Christ did the same thing with their Rabbi-concocted Talmud (designated as “the literary reservoir of Rabbinic Judaism” and added to the Sacred Literature of Israel during the Hellenistic Age--250-200 BC--in Jewish history).

Barlow explains,
“The ‘religion’ of our Lord Jesus Christ was that of Judaism, a faith whose ONLY foundation was the Word of God, which was called the Torah. In contrast to that, the religious leaders of our Lord’s day belonged to another (though it adamantly claimed to be the same) religion that was based on the Talmud, which was man’s addition to the Word of God. I am perfectly aware that these words will cause an uproar. It will not be as seemingly caustic as the reaction that will come with the exact same charge will be laid at the feet of Christendom. I reiterate, Christianity is a faith in the Word of God only—Christendom is a totally different ‘religion’ than that and it rests upon the tenants of paganism, philosophy and augmentations to the Bible.”

(Lisa Leland)

Works and Days

Works and Days: "World Beneath Their Feet" Victor David Hanson

It is ironic to travel through Italy and see nearly all of its artistic treasures, whether classical or ecclesiastical, as a dividend of a religious, confident culture, and almost nothing comparable offered by the new Europe of socialism, statism, and agnosticism.

If heaven is retiring at 55, leaving the apartment each mid-morning to sit in the local coffee shop, and then protesting on weekends about my lower than anticipated pension cost of living increase, then I would prefer hell.

(No Victor wouldn't if he understood the utter wretchedness and hopelessness of life eternally apart from God. Jesus said, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). Indeed. The Apostle Paul writes, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (II Corinthians 4:17-18).

Victor correctly (I think) continues:

The great unspoken truth? Somewhere right now, a US ship, an American soldier, a circling F-16 keep the Russians honest, the fear in al Qaeda, the Straits of Hormuz open, the commerce of the Mediterranean safe–unknown, unappreciated to the mass of European utopian citizenry..."

I am reminded of a hymn which our choir sang long ago when I was in high school. The tune is called Ebenezer (Hitherto the Lord has helped me)but the words speak of a time of decision for people and nations:


Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by for ever
'Twixt that darkness and that light.

(James Russell Lowell, 1819-91)

Dogwood

On vacation again...

Obituaries

There were no obituary reports for Friday, May 22
May 22, 2009
(Escanaba Daily Press on-line.)

Again, death takes a holiday. I'm sure it will be short.

Death Takes a Holiday (1934) The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Faith, hope and love abides...

We live in a troubled place, and we have to choose sides. To do so with intelligence, we have to risk something. But the alternative is cowardice or betrayal.

No, time is not dishonest. It is brutal in its wisdom. It separates seed from seed, and it shows who has finished the race and who has turned away. Harsh and necessary truths, which none of us in the field may know before the proper time.

So it must be for our little ones as well. One of the few certainties in life is that pain is coming. How we would thrust ourselves between them and the hardship that awaits them. How we would take their fate into ourselves if we could. What deal wouldn't we make? We tear open our organs that God might show mercy -- our senses pour out their humours and something in us must be melting -- like fat over the flames of an altar. Is God moved? What dignity wouldn't we shed in our begging that those we love be spared? But they are not spared. There is only one salvation, and that is by way of a cross.

We don't need a God who passes by. Such a God might as well be made of stone, for all he hears. We need the God who comes up along side of us, and who stops and abides a while. We need the God who loves little children. We need the God who weeps.

From: FORGOTTEN PROPHETS

No matter what befalls in this life; faith, hope, and love abides unabated (I Corinthians 13:13). This is why we can rejoice over the coming of a new life. I will rejoice and be glad.

TUNING PIANOS

Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.

So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.

--A.W. Tozer

Are you woolgathering today?

Some clothing idioms:

people are advised not to wash their dirty linen in public,

even adults like to have their security blankets,

and emperors often don't have clothes.

The word silken can be used to describe food and voice and touch.

Woolgathering (daydreaming) and cottonpickin' (fit for nothing better than picking cotton; unworthy) -- the list of idiomatic use of fabric words is a long one. (from Wordsmith.org)

Scripture speaks of the hope of our resurrection body "eternal in the heavens". For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked...but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (II Corinthians 5:2-8).

Let's do a bit of woolgathering today on this wonderful promise.

The alcoholic ...

All good stories–even true ones–should have a moral, but Darin’s story eludes easy lessons. He was taken by that peculiar insanity which alcoholics possess in abundance, even while sober. When Darin hatched his master plan, he was not drinking, but engaged in one of his countless attempts to clean up. For the alcoholic, the danger lies not in the bottle, but in the brain. The sane among us make mistakes, to be sure: wisdom comes from experience, and experience often comes from lack of wisdom. But facing the inevitable consequences of bad choices, we generally rearrange our lives and priorities to ensure that such a travesty does not happen again. Not so the alcoholic. Obsessively repeating behavior long ago proven destructive, he nevertheless pursues the optimism of denial which says the next time will be different. This baffling disconnect from reality cascades from farce to tragedy, as the alcoholic perceives no problems other than those who are out to get him.

There is much resistance to the idea that alcoholism and addiction are a disease. Much of this comes from conservatives, and those of religious conviction, whose proper emphasis on personal responsibility and moral rectitude sees in the alcoholic only reckless hedonism and wanton irresponsibility. These qualities the addict has in spades, but less obvious is the driving obsessive compulsion, the thought disorder which is their engine. The medical evidence for the disease model of alcoholism and addiction is deep and wide. The liberals have this one right: the alcoholic is a victim of his or her genetics, and the addition of a mind-altering drug–which one is probably moot–starts a swirling whirlpool whose vortex holds only misery, destruction and death. Not many survive its power.

Read full article at:
The Doctor Is In

Not overnight...

The old Latin proverb nemo repente turpissimus can be translated as "nobody becomes very evil overnight."

What is man?

"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" -- Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare

Yes, a quintessence of dust,(but) made a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:4,5; Hebrews 2:6-8) and, in Christ, filled with God's glory, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

James Montgomery Boice said in thinking about these verses: If we could see the lowliest believer, as God sees them, we would be tempted to worship them as we beheld their glory.

"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?"

Indeed. Behold what the Lord has done on our behalf.

And so our hearts are one with the Apostle Paul when he says:

"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4).

Angel wings?

Ark of the Covenant - two Cherubim on top with wings touching.

Angel = Gr. messenger

Isaiah 6 reveals the Seraphim order of angels with six wings. The Cherubim were placed at the entrance of Eden (Gen 3:24), upon the cover of the ark of the covenant, they are the living creatures of Revelation 4, and they have wings.

Otherwise, when an angel appears to mankind in the Scriptures they appear as men (no wings). Abraham looked up and saw three men (Genesis 18:2 with 19:1) which confirm they were angels.

They are a heavenly being, created (Ps 148:2-5). They have revealed themselves in bodily form to man. Jesus said that they do not marry and do not die (Luke 20:34-36). They are of various ranks (Col. 1:16), but only Michael is called an archangel in Scripture (Jude 9).

Angels in the Bible when they appear to mankind are men.

Angels are spirits (Psm 104:4) but power is given them to become visible in human form (Matthew 1.20; Luke 1:26; John 20:12; Acts 7:30 etc.) The word angel is always used in the masculine gender.

May Day Lilies

Israel again a nation

State of Israel Proclaimed (1948)
In November 1947, the UN approved the Partition Plan for Palestine, calling for the formation of two states, one Jewish and one Arab, as well as a small, internationally administered zone in what had previously been a British-administered territory. The Arab leadership rejected this plan, but on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was declared. The next day, five Arab states declared war on Israel.

The Lord said, "Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me" (Psalm 89:35-36).

Quiet sun. . .

Global warming predictions by meteorologists are based on speculative, untested, and poorly constrained computer models. But our knowledge of ice ages is based on a wide variety of reliable data, including cores from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. In this case, it would be perspicacious to listen to the geologists, not the meteorologists. By reducing our production of carbon dioxide, we risk hastening the advent of the next ice age. Even more foolhardy and dangerous is the Obama administration's announcement that they may try to cool the planet through geoengineering. Such a move in the middle of a cooling trend could provoke the irreversible onset of an ice age. It is not hyperbole to state that such a climatic change would mean the end of human civilization as we know it.

Earth's climate is controlled by the Sun. In comparison, every other factor is trivial. The coldest part of the Little Ice Age during the latter half of the seventeenth century was marked by the nearly complete absence of sunspots. And the Sun now appears to be entering a new period of quiescence. August of 2008 was the
first month since the year 1913 that no sunspots were observed. As I write, the sun remains quiet. We are in a cooling trend. The areal extent of global sea ice is above the twenty-year mean.

We have heard much of the dangers of global warming due to carbon dioxide. But the potential danger of any potential anthropogenic warming is trivial compared to the risk of entering a new ice age. Public policy decisions should be based on a realistic appraisal that takes both climate scenarios into consideration.

(The American Thinker article)

Goodness

"Liberals think people are good. Libertarians think people are rational. Alas." Neither is the case.

I couldn't continue as libertarian because it was just too irresponsible. The self-interest part is easy, but the other? -- not so much.

Liberals end up using force to coerce goodness; because force is antithetical to their theory, they don't know how to use it wisely. Communism in action. Great sounding theories, aren't they. Alas, reality is so harsh with theories.

So how will good ever be done in the world, if mankind is neither good nor rational? There is no process of goodness. It's almost arbitrary -- it requires wisdom. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes it is no. Answer a fool according to his folly, and answer not a fool according to his folly. Some children need gentleness, and some need firmness. Wisdom discerns.

How can we do good in the world? One act at a time.

Marvin Olasky documented this thoroughly in his superb The Tragedy of American Compassion.

Personal generosity is a virtue. Impersonal generosity is a bureaucracy. Money is for increasing happiness. If it doesn't bring happiness, it hasn't been spent properly. Spend it on yourself, past a certain point, and it's no longer about happiness, but about money. Use it where it's needed, and deserts blossom.

(From FORGOTTEN PROPHETS blog.)

Give and Take

"A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is big enough to take away everything you have."

Thomas Jefferson

Who do you love?

"...all they that hate me love death" (Proverbs 8:36).

This from the wonderful 8th chapter of Proverbs in where Wisdom is personified and points to the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you match this with verses in Colossians, "...being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:2,3), you have the connection of wisdom with Christ.

Who do you love? Christ or death?

Fire or ice?

Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

(Robert Frost)

God says the world will never end. It will be cleaned up by fire (II Peter 3:12,13). We will have a new heaven and a new earth.

"He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).

God is good. He will make new all the desecration that man has wrecked upon this lovely earth. Then God will dwell on this earth in Jerusalem, the city of the King (Psalm 132:13). Alleluia!

Free will...

C.S. Lewis, a 20th century Christian philosopher, discussed free will at length. On the matter of human will, Lewis wrote:

"God willed the free will of men and angels in spite of His knowledge that it could lead in some cases to sin and thence to suffering: i.e., He thought freedom worth creating even at that price."

In his radio broadcast Lewis indicated that God "gave [humans] free will. He gave them free will because a world of mere automata could never love…"

Lewis, believing in free will, had an indirect belief in randomness by setting up a dependency of love on free will.

Randomness - encyclopedia article about Randomness.

Your name...

A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him, and which one perchance may safely twitch and pull, but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over and over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher, 1749-1832)

"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold." (Proverbs 22:1)

Tears in rain...

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.
(Blade Runner, 1982 sci-fi film)

Consider what God says about our tears:

"O God...Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?" (Psalm 56:8)

"For Thou (O LORD) hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." (Psalm 116.8)

"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." (Psalm 126.5)

"...God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Revelation 7:17)

Nimrod

(Pieter Bruegel's Tower of Babel)

Enough to say there was a Flood that scrubbed the world down to basement rock and destroyed every geographical feature. Everything currently existing, from the Grand Canyon to the Himalayas, is Post-Flood.

Göbekli Tepe Gobekli Tepe, an archaeological dig in Turkey. Anatolia. Asia Minor.

What then is Gobekli Tepe? It's very cool. I take it as a holy site of Nimrod and his cultus. Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham, son of Noah. Rough date, 2100 BC. Perhaps the site is from a later era, and the radiocarbon dating is just really really fouled up. But if it is truly archaic, then its burial would represent the action of Shem, who is generally represented as an evil force in pagan mythology, but they would spin it that way, wouldn't they.

Shem was in actuality the anti-pagan who fought to preserve the pure tradition of Noah, over Ham's corrupt carry-over from an Antediluvian world that was so steeped in corruption as to be irredeemable.

You know where Eden is, right? Lost beneath the waves of the Flood.

(Interesting stuff from J...Go to link below for a really interesting study of the dating of the earth.)

The Age of Base Metal

Experience

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that:
one useless man is a shame,
two is a law firm,
and three or more is a congress.
(John Adams)

Not the end of the story...

History is a murder mystery. The universe was fed a slow poison, and we are riding out its death-throes. And mankind, from the first father to the unborn in the womb -- all hold still in shallow-breath'd anticipation of the falling ax. The mystery isn't what will happen in the end, but how it will unfold. Dust reclaims its own. We don't own the land -- it owns us.

That's the plot.

But it's not the end of the story.

(This from Forbidden Prophets blog. If I knew how to link directly I would do so, but can't seen to master the art yet. Wanted to give credit.)

Wind

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

- Christina Rossetti

Look up!

THE BUZZARD:

If you put a buzzard in a pen 6 feet by 8 feet that is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason: a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

THE BAT:

The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

THE BUMBLEBEE:

A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.

PEOPLE:

In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that we we should look up to God!

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up with trust in the Son of God who loved us, and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).

". . . we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe." ( I Timothy 4:10)