Winston Churchill on Our Spiritual Heritage

"There's an extraordinary passage by Churchill in a speech he gave in Jerusalem in 1921, which dumbfounds me every time I read it. He said,
'We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation a system of ethics, which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization.'

That's an extraordinary thing to say, especially in public."


and it could bear saying again......

Let There Be Light (this guy is on to something)

He Qi, a prominent Chinese painter, believes Christian art should be bright. "I read the first chapter of Genesis, the creation, and God says, 'Let there be light.' So God's creation is a very, very colorful world." This idea goes against the centuries-old tradition in Chinese academic art — minimalist still lifes and landscapes usually done in black ink on white paper.

    

                                                                                                                            

Gideon and the Angel
David and King Saul

Jonah
Solomon's Judgement
Elijah and the Ravens

(Can you tell which biblical story is being represented by these brilliant pictures? I gave you an easy one first.)

More Good Stuff from beyond the sun

He Qi, a prominent Chinese painter, believes Christian art should be bright. "I read the first chapter of Genesis, the creation, and God says, 'Let there be light.' So God's creation is a very, very colorful world." This idea goes against the centuries-old tradition in Chinese academic art — minimalist still lifes and landscapes usually done in black ink on white paper.

Moses strikes the rock

You know who in the Bulrushes

The Walls Come Down

Moses and Pharoah

May this banner wave over the home of the free (Go Wings)

Red Wings building manager Al Sobotka, was informed he would face a $10,000 fine if he spun an octopus over his head at a hockey game.

 
"It's disappointing. You know, we don't do anything to harm anyone, or anything like that, it's just for fan excitement; fans love it, and I love it, so they shot it down, so, that's it. We don't want to let them mess with Hockeytown; we'll try to see what we can do."

Gary Bettman faces the inky outrage of sport writers and fans everywhere.  

Join the freedom train and sign the petition today.

 Watch the videos and you will know what to do.

At long last we have moral clarity.

Let the octi swing!

LH

SAMSON'S RIDDLE (out of the lion's belly, may yet come sweet)

Rare brain disease gave scientist "a torrent of creativity"




































POSTED BY CORY DOCTOROW, on Boing Boing a directory of wonderful things

Dr Anne Adams was a Canadian scientist who died of a rare brain disease -- frontotemporal dementia -- which caused her to give up her lab and engage in an ecstasy of creative effort (and an agony of frustration as her mathematical ability slipped away), mostly centered on Ravel's Bolero, a composition he wrote in the throes of the same disease.

What a Friend We Have......Because......What Friend We Need

What comfort and strength is ours to know that in the midst of all our mischief, amid our scheming and bad speculations, regardless of our shaping, misshaping or reshaping of life, with all of our activities and failures, God is among us. God is not a graven image of our own longings and shortcomings. Rather God, through Christ, is among us as friend, advocate, savior, and above all as our living Lord, to correct, to forgive, to comfort, to love, and to heal.

- John A. Stroman
The Thunder from the Mountain

the ressurection can be a scary prospect

Felt Cutout Saints

"A blur of romance clings to notions of "publicans," "sinners," "the poor," "the people in the marketplace," "our neighbors," as though of course God should reveal himself, if at all, to these simple people, these Sunday school watercolor figures who are so purely themselves in their tattered robes, who are single in themselves, while we now are various, complex, and full at heart.... Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. There is no one to send, nor a clean hand, nor a pure heart on the face of the earth, nor in the earth, but only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that our innocent fathers are all dead—as if innocence had ever been.... But there is no one but us. There never has been."

- Annie Dillard
An Annie Dillard Reader

This quote from Annie Dillard seems to sum up much of what I found hard about being an evangelical Christian. The idea of the perfectibility of our spirits was a goal that inspired my spiritual quest when I was new to the faith but now chokes me and leaves me condemned for not being anything like the perfect 'felt cutout saints' of Sunday School and the Sunday sermon.



Annie's acceptance of our humanity, warts and all, seems to be the only way we can live authentically and spiritually in the world.

I am at least momentarily inspired to keep trying to live in contact with the God of Abraham, Issac , Jacob et al, (even, if truth be told, I am more than a little doubleminded.)

LH

For Those of You Who Know Life Can Be One Darned Thing After Another

in the drink
out of the drink

back in the drink

out of the drink

all together now

back in the drink

(I hope someone learned something from this)

A Comedian's Guide to Theology," by Thor Ramsey.

From the new release "A Comedian's Guide to Theology," by Thor Ramsey.




Author: Moses; Ghostwriter: God

Whenever you tell someone that you believe that the Bible is God's Word, they often look at you funny. So I've determined that this is no way to begin a conversation with the convenience store clerk. Just take your beer and go home.


The Bible's Oral Tradition (Which Has Nothing to Do with Mr. Roberts)

The Old Testament was written a long, long time ago, thus its fitting name. It wasn't written down initially. It was passed on orally, but the Israelites wrote it down after a nasty canker sore outbreak. Tradition says that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, but due to insufficient evidence, we don't really know what kind of advance he received.



Frisked for Jesus

Quoting the Bible unwisely can do more harm than good. Next time you get pulled over for speeding, quote Mark 5:13 to the officer, "The unclean spirits entered the pigs," and see if things don't go worse for you from then on.



The Silk Robe Church Crisis

After the New Testament books were made official, about 400 years after the birth of Jesus, everyone in ministry was given a really nice robe, and soon the Church became lazy; but what do you expect when you spend all day lounging around in a robe? The Church of Lazy neglected to practice some really good ideas that Jesus propagated, like loving your neighbor as yourself and not giving false witness. The neglect of these ideas is known as the Crusades and the Inquisition.


The Great Tradition of the Mother-in-Law Joke

The Bible says to honor your father and mother. It says nothing about your mother-in-law. This is because God never gives us more than we can handle.



Freedom Through Manipulation

According to the Bible, adultery is the only legitimate reason for divorce. So, if you're unhappily married, you might want to stack your home Bible study group with attractive people and encourage your spouse to mingle.