Majority is Right? Wrong.

Majority did not walk out with Lot [1]

Majority were not on the boat with Noah

Majority were not in the Upper Room     – 9/27/09

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[1] Sodom

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Demas

There once was a friend of Saint Paul,

Who forsook him, at last, after all.

Demas loved this world, mean

‘Cause his heart was unclean.

 Love not the world or you’ll fall.  2Ti 4.10 

                – eab, 3/31/05

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John Donne – death, Mar. 31, 1631

Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness

 Since I am coming to that holy room,
        Where, with thy choir of saints for evermore,
    I shall be made thy music; as I come
        I tune the instrument here at the door,
        And what I must do then, think here before.

    Whilst my physicians by their love are grown
        Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie
    Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown
        That this is my south-west discovery,
    Per fretum febris, by these straits to die,

  I joy, that in these straits I see my west;
      For, though their currents yield return to none,
  What shall my west hurt me? As west and east
      In all flat maps (and I am one) are one,
      So death doth touch the resurrection.

  Is the Pacific Sea my home? Or are
      The eastern riches? Is Jerusalem?
  Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar,
      All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them,
      Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.

  We think that Paradise and Calvary,
      Christ’s cross, and Adam’s tree, stood in one place;
  Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me;
      As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face,
      May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace.

  So, in his purple wrapp’d, receive me, Lord;
      By these his thorns, give me his other crown;
  And as to others’ souls I preach’d thy word,
      Be this my text, my sermon to mine own:
  “Therefore that he may raise, the Lord throws down.”

John Donne died this date, 3/31/1631.  Donne was born on Bread Street, 1/24/1573 at London.  He was first educated by Jesuits, then studied at Oxford and later Cambridge.  He was twenty-one when he left the Roman Catholic system though he did not publish his Pseudo-Martyr and Ignatius his Conclave (anti-catholic works) until 1610, 1611 respectfully.  He was ordained for Church of England and became known as one of the more remarkable poet-preachers of his day. Some of his earlier poetry is undesirable but his later works show a clear spiritual side. Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1623-1624) contains his most quoted line: “No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind.”  A couple other well known lines are “For whom does the bell toll?  It tolls for thee” and “Death be not proud.”

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What DID Jesus Do?

What would Jesus do? – Rather – What DID He do?

He healed, touched, fed, calmed, raised, condemned, cleared, and answered

He never struck, killed, cursed, or committed adultery.     

– eab, 4/21/09

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THE AGE RAGE

Seems some people are seeking to shun,

The awards their own age has won,

They try to dress like their daughter,

Vainly hoping to “be her sister,”

Or try to play like their grown son.

 

Age is an item which has no reverse,

You get “the part,” though you didn’t rehearse.

You can dab on a layer or two of paint,

Do exercises where you nearing faint,

No avail – birthdays get “worse and worse.”

 

God is sending us a reminder with age,

Let us learn to relish each passing stage.

You fool no one with paint, but you

(Relax – they’re getting older too! )

Getting older one-day-at-a-time is “the rage.”

                – eab, 3/4/09

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Harriet Beecher Stowe

3/20 Harriet Beecher Stowe on this date 1852 (she was then 41) published Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  This antislavery novel became a classic and joined the thin ranks of very influencial books – probably in the top ten most effective books ever published (the Bible is the most influencial Book in the world).  Uncle Tom’s Cabin had been published as a series in an antislavery newspaper the year before. It is thought to have helped lead America into the uncivil war (1861-1865).

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Holy? or unholy?

To be holy, is to be whole!

To be unholy, is to have a hole in your soul.

Jesus can fix that.           

 – eab, 3/19/11

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Hannah

She prayed with her lips, without sound.

Thought Eli, “a drunk I have found.”

She told him her plight,

God made everything right,

Soon son Samuel was temple-bound.

                                                (1Sa 1.13)

                – eab, Mar. ‘05

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer – wrote, Mar. 19, 1944

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on this date, 3/19/1944, is said to have written in a letter

“We can have abundant life, even though many wishes remain unfulfilled.” 

Bonhoeffer was a German pastor (Lutheran) who did not sympathize with the Nazi regime and was in fact of martyr of the same.  His Cost of Discipleship is a great read.

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AGE MEANS NOTHING TO THE SOUL

There’s sadness, a sense of regret when limits are reached.

Age, the enemy of physical prowess, draws various lines.  This sadness need not come to the man/woman who has Christ.  You can move in unlimited challenge. 

AGE MEANS NOTHING TO THE SOUL.  – eab

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