tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88744975286990434692024-02-24T08:10:27.345+10:00Beacons of the PastIlluminating the Present
Guiding the FutureSarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-89882847715096728692013-07-03T22:35:00.000+10:002013-07-03T22:35:11.448+10:00A New Way To Follow My Blog - Bloglovin'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7373453/?claim=jmjw6wuvwc9"><br />Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
</div>
<br />
<br />
<rc http:="" png="" signatures.mylivesignature.com="" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;"></rc></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'century gothic', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Rumours are flying like sparks in blogsphere that Blogger is changing the way you can 'follow' a blog. I'm not 100% sure this is true. However, if Blogger 'friends' disappears, you can still get blog updates by following my blog on Bloglovin...It'll make me real happy if you do! </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'century gothic', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Thanks!</span></div>
</div>
Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-566912122878955462013-06-29T23:06:00.001+10:002013-06-29T23:07:39.146+10:00New Beginnings...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUYOWectYyvyuomJNapS14Rdk0CHTzB4mutv9ZIwM7nYTJNM2Y9zNYbmpCmMLyvSdGCK4o6zfm4Xp_xmLbRJOh0TuYRTVnalU9lcTnK2HuaSnvj4FEqh0uZmRJpLPV7AEeREsd7l9qME/s200/flower_(resized200x150).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglUYOWectYyvyuomJNapS14Rdk0CHTzB4mutv9ZIwM7nYTJNM2Y9zNYbmpCmMLyvSdGCK4o6zfm4Xp_xmLbRJOh0TuYRTVnalU9lcTnK2HuaSnvj4FEqh0uZmRJpLPV7AEeREsd7l9qME/s200/flower_(resized200x150).jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <i>Pinterest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, after a rather long absence, I'm back! I really apologise to my dear blog encouragers and viewers for this unforeseen prolonged absence. Since I posted last in December 2012, a lot has gone on in my life...especially in my life as a student with the work load expectedly increasing as I come nearer to finishing my degree. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Throughout those last few months I've been really thinking and praying about blogging. However, I found it very difficult to get much inspiration for this blog for the time being...that is, that would be in tune with the main purpose of this blog, namely history and faith in history. </span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What I needed was a new place to share those things freely without the constraints of the main purpose of this blog, which does tend on the more academic/literary side. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So, I decided to launch a new blog - '<a href="http://ofsimplethings-sarah.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Of Simple Things</a>'! A place with more 'scope for the imagination', as I like to say! You'll probably find this new blog a little different in tone, a bit more conversational and personal. I hope it is a blessing to you and it would make me extra encouraged if you would join my blog and be a regular encourager. Thank you very much!</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8874497528699043469#" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://clients.hannahrosebeasley.com/simplethings/button.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Of Simple Things</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Many Blessings, </span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a></div>
Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-7120089795919111022012-12-25T00:05:00.000+10:002012-12-25T00:05:11.659+10:00Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jesus is the reason for the season!</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkn6pHnlW04lq2oE20sWeBdNCeF3XPuylEIo9TwK6SnBKhlXaxq4xpuVHadDUIyYNIZR4HAxjlMoTy8oFglbzIVjMzRVwd0p0_5TkzPT5XHRQMofIPpwY85IGzbfuQ3dE8UJaCp_tRPRw/s1600/190066046745636371_SMyMCUEk_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkn6pHnlW04lq2oE20sWeBdNCeF3XPuylEIo9TwK6SnBKhlXaxq4xpuVHadDUIyYNIZR4HAxjlMoTy8oFglbzIVjMzRVwd0p0_5TkzPT5XHRQMofIPpwY85IGzbfuQ3dE8UJaCp_tRPRw/s640/190066046745636371_SMyMCUEk_c.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Christmas is a very special time for most of us, being with family and friends, and doing many other wonderful things together, like shopping for gifts, going to Christmas parties and singing Christmas carols.</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">However, what really makes this time most special, at least for me, is the true joy, the hope, and the peace that comes from knowing and having the best Gift of all in my life, Jesus Christ. </span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I never cease to wonder at God's amazing love in leaving His glorious throne in heaven above to be born into our sin-sick world, become a man, and be born is poverty in a dirty stable in an obscure place and in an obscure family.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Not only that, but He came to live among us and be one of us, serving us, healing us, and showing us His way. </span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Then, making us His children through His suffering on the bitter cross. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Oh, but the wonder still continues....</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He rose from the dead to give us eternal life and give us eternal hope...to make us BORN AGAIN! </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What a perfect, holy way!</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What a Salvation! </span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you, Lord Jesus!</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache0.pinterest.com/upload/165366617539125227_pPOcDTwt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://media-cache0.pinterest.com/upload/165366617539125227_pPOcDTwt.jpg" width="255" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">via <i>Pinterest</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So, remember to seek Him this Christmas!</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">May you be abundantly blessed this Christmas and may you have a wonderful and happy New Year in Him.</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Come on, ring those bells!</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Jesus is the King born for you and me!</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/fsYBXpqJz3g?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
sung by Evie Tornquist-Karlsson</div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">God Bless, </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px !important;" /></a></div>
Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-25006697136211494502012-11-10T15:14:00.000+10:002012-11-10T15:14:26.263+10:00Echos of Jericho<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/A_Cross_of_Candle_Light.jpg/800px-A_Cross_of_Candle_Light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/A_Cross_of_Candle_Light.jpg/800px-A_Cross_of_Candle_Light.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Wikipedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, everyone, I'm back! I know it's ridiculous to go on telling you how busy I've been lately with studying and all, but I won't bore you with that now :) Though, I have to add that there are also times when I don't really know what to share with you. This is exactly what I've been experiencing in the past weeks. But I've been praying about this, asking the Lord for ideas. During last week I've been researching for an essay on the end of the Cold War in Europe (i.e. how the Communist regime ended in the Eastern European Countries and the former Soviet Union). I found it really fascinating and I thought it would be lovely to share some of what I've learned, considering also that this month is the anniversary of these extraordinary events...I hope it bless you :)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">************</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div>
<div id="ftn1">
</div>
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivered a sensational speech in West Berlin in sight of the famous Brandenburg Gate. In it, and in reference to the Berlin Wall that had been a stark symbol of the Cold-War division between East and West since 1961, he dramatically called: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' In other words, Reagan was calling for an end to the Cold War. That possibility had always seemed very far-fetched with neither the West nor the Soviet Union willing to give in to the other and with nuclear war continually dangling like Damocles' sword over humanity. However, Gorbachev (the new leader of the Soviet Union) also decided it was time to end the Cold War and the mad nuclear arms race. Gorbachev introduced many changes that brought on many unexpected revolutionary events in Eastern European countries which eventually culminated on </span><span style="font-size: large;">November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall did finally come down. This basically heralded the end of Communist rule in East Germany and the rest of Eastern Europe and two years later, even, the Soviet Union. </span></div>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510dpQzQAYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510dpQzQAYL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Google Images</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">One of the most extraordinary things about the events that lead to that amazing ending, was the relatively quick and peaceful way in which it was achieved (especially in East Germany).</span><span style="font-size: large;"> In her book,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> <i>Candles Behind the Wall: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution That Shattered Communism</i>, </span><span style="font-size: large;">Barbara von der Heydt* relates the event beautifully and compellingly, drawing attention to some very interesting details behind this extraordinary historical event. I thought it best to share it here - in her own words as much as possible: </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">(Context: By that time, Eastern Germans, with the help of the Lutheran Church who had been praying and calling for peaceful protests, had already started to peacefully protest in the streets against the Communist regime. They were hoping for an end to the oppression they were living under.) </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is clear that during this critical time, Gorbachev withheld explicit approval for a bloodbath to put down the demonstrations, and the East German regime may not have dared to give the order to fire on its own. But this was a radical change for the Soviets, in light of the Soviet response in 1953 in East Germany, in 1957 in Hungary, and in 1968 in Czechoslovakia. And the Soviets had threatened Poland with invasion as recently as 1981. There was nothing inevitable about a peaceful end, as Chinese demonstrators had found out in Tiananmen Square only months before. Had the Soviets themselves changed? Recent behaviour gives no consistent answer: they used violence again in Lithuania in January 1991. <i><b>But for some reason, the situation in East Germany turned out differently.</b></i> (emphasis added) </span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The East German regime was now in disarray. In a tense politburo session on October 18, [1989,] Erich Honecker was unceremoniously dumped and replaced by Egon Krenz. The number of demonstrators swelled to 200,000 in Leipzig, then 300,000. City after city followed Leipzig's example, with millions filling the streets. A nation was on its feet because the people found their voice. The regime was scrambling to meet their pent-up demands to be able to speak freely, to travel, to organize, to reform. So many things were different, including the fresh creativity, wit, courage, and humour that people used to illustrate the banners they carried. It was as if they were negotiating by poster board as their appetite for change was whetted by new victories.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The turning point in Berlin came on November 4, 1989. One million people assembled in the Alexanderplatz, with the "best and brightest" of the country addressing the huge crowd. The mass of people moved in procession to Unter den Linden, then to the Palace of the Republic, then back to the Alexanderplatz. The critical point came at the Palace of the Republic, where the street continues straight on to the Brandenburg Gate, the huge, well-known archway that is the gateway between East and West Berlin, and symbolically between the two parts of the divided country.</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dw.de/image/0,,4778593_4,00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="http://www.dw.de/image/0,,4778593_4,00.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marchers in Leipzig 1989<br />
via google images</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Anyone who could think militarily knew that if a million people continued marching straight ahead, the tanks would have to roll and the soldiers would have intervene to stop them. But those in the procession also knew the Stasi and their methods. If the Stasi put a few hundred provocateurs into the crowd to keep marching ahead, to draw the crowd toward the Brandenburg Gate, that would provide the needed reason to attack. It was not discussed, but all the genuine participants knew that even if hundreds broke away they must not.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Von der Hydt then relates the impressions of one of those who were participants in that demonstration....</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What he remembers most is the silence: "Hundreds and thousands of people walked around this curve without saying a word. It was a silent march at this point. One heard only the soft sound of the feet of these people. Everyone knew this was the critical point." There was no provocation, there was no attack. A million people silently signaled with their feet they wanted change, but peaceful change.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Five days later, the Berlin Wall fell...</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec6.pinterest.com/upload/205547170463749184_fkFY9qh0_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://media-cache-ec6.pinterest.com/upload/205547170463749184_fkFY9qh0_c.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Pinterest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The news reached the airwaves with lightening speed and people swarmed to the cross-points in Berlin some still in pajamas, mobbing the surprised border guards, who knew nothing about what had happened. When the people told them what they'd heard on the radio, the guards were unsure what to do. After trying to hold back the growing, jostling crowd, some guards in exasperation and confusion simply shoved back their caps and let the people charge through. The crowd became jubilant, and the people of a nation that had been divided fell into each other's arms. There were tears, flowers, and streams of uncorked champagne.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Shortly thereafter, on New-Year's Day, young people danced on the Wall in exhilaration, and the nation wept in disbelief and joy. Reunification, which occurred on October 3, 1990, took place less than a year from the moment the Wall fell.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">On the night that the Wall fell, people leaving the Nikolikirche marched through the centre of the city. Week after week during the fall of 1989, they had marched in a circle around Leipzig after the <i>Friedensgebete. </i>On November 9 they marched for the seventh time, commemorating the fifty-first anniversary of <i>Kristallnacht,</i> the beginning of violence against the Jews leading up to World War II. An on that night, people left the Nikolaikirche praying for their country. As they walked through Leipzig for the seventh time, they heard a crash as resounding as that one heard in Jericho: it was the sound of the Berlin Wall falling. The German Democratic Republic had been in existence for exactly forty years.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">The biblical allusions are startling.</i> (emphasis added) </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Christian Fuhrer, an East German pastor, had this to say about what happened - that it was 'a powerful testament to God's Spirit at work on earth':</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Non-violence is clearly the spirit of Jesus. With these people who grew up with pictures of class enemies, and whose parents grew up with the Nazis and violence and racial hatred, you can prove that it didn't come from here. It's not a question of one's upbringing. And the few Christians that there are in this unchristian country - they didn't do it either....That was the spirit of God at work. We [Christians] couldn't have done it....God honoured by letting us play this part in His plan." </span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">(<i>Candles Behind the Wall, </i>pp. 187-189)</span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Little further comment is needed. The story speaks of itself of God's amazing grace and providence in it all. Not to mention the power of prayer! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a documentary video of those events (a first hand source):</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gcUwoK9WouE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Episode 22: 'Star Wars'</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/qpyCz3UyOJE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Episode 23: 'The Wall Comes Down'</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ld3VLrsFndo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Episode 14: 'Conclusions'</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> _____________________________________________________</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.acton.org/sites/v4.acton.org/files/people/heydt.jpg?1277737931" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.acton.org/sites/v4.acton.org/files/people/heydt.jpg?1277737931" width="138" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Google Images</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
* Barbara von der Heydt <i>is an American journalist who lived in Germany and reported European news on U.S., Canadian, and Australian television from 1984 to 1989. She was a presidential appointee to the White House Office of Public Liaison (1981) having served at the Heritage Foundation (1978-81), where she was director of Legislative Information on Capitol Hill. </i>(Bio Info from back flap of her book <i>Candles Behind the Wall</i>)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">_____________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Reference: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Von der Hydt, Barbara, <i>Candles Behind the Wall: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution That Shattered Communism</i>, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1993.</span><br />
<br /></div>
Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-60792844211116304002012-09-08T19:17:00.002+10:002012-09-08T19:17:31.934+10:00Food in Days Gond-by - Meat and Fish on the Menu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ieS_lXNh_VUHJE6IrQ7HLZfC16vMcdvVSEx7hIFlmPrRzcw8I0IHmBj955_1nJM7jMgXSZ-_Kfd8SBEE64nl-kgbWQQ0vmxqvC8GU2j6D01h-ArVfCg_RdLP0iGDpgvtYhyphenhyphenO3E1m-CQ/s1600/food1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="92" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ieS_lXNh_VUHJE6IrQ7HLZfC16vMcdvVSEx7hIFlmPrRzcw8I0IHmBj955_1nJM7jMgXSZ-_Kfd8SBEE64nl-kgbWQQ0vmxqvC8GU2j6D01h-ArVfCg_RdLP0iGDpgvtYhyphenhyphenO3E1m-CQ/s640/food1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Not very long ago, I've started a mini-series dealing with food and its social significance during the period historians call, the early-modern European period (approx. 1450-1800). The first post in this series dealt with the kind of bread people ate at the time (see <a href="http://gemsinhistory-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/food-in-days-gone-by-flour-and-bread.html" target="_blank">Flour and Bread crumbs</a>). </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Now its time for another post in the series: </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Meat and Fish</i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i></b><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090884401_6Zwaeq6v_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="464" src="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090884401_6Zwaeq6v_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Pinterest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In the early modern period, meat was an important part of any good diet. Before the late fourteenth century (1300s), meat was a bit of a luxury for the lower social classes and only the nobility ate meat regularly. However, between the late fourteenth century and fifteenth centuries, the European population was drastically reduced as a result of the Black Death. With this came a greater abundance of food and meat became more common for all classes. </span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">After the fifteenth century, there was a population boom again, and meat became more expensive. It was at this time that different kinds of meat began to be divided into social categories. T</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">here was now 'lordly' meat and 'lowly' meat - meat for nobles and meat for the lower classes and the peasants - for 'rustical' stomachs. </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/106890191126025232_m5r2i1L5_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/106890191126025232_m5r2i1L5_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Pinterest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">For example, a veal's or boar's head was considered 'food for princes' and it was usually presented whole with garnishes on a large platter. Fowl, such as game birds, chicken, pheasant, partridge, swan, or peacock, was another kind of meat considered fit only for the nobility for a long time. Birds were close to the heavens and thus fitter for softer and nobler stomachs, it was believed. This was demonstrated at times (usually in the earlier part of the early-modern period) by a pie with live birds inside. The host would tear it open and release the birds into the room. It was a form of dinning entertainment. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.insecula.com/PhotosNew/00/00/08/76/ME0000087627_3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.insecula.com/PhotosNew/00/00/08/76/ME0000087627_3.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Via insecula.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">By the sixteenth century, however, fowl became available for the common people, too. The story behind this is quite interesting. It is said that it was King Henry IV of France who decided that every Frenchmen should have the right to eat fowl at least once a week. The nobility were upset, accusing the king of 'democratizing' it. However, it became a common practice in France to eat fowl each Sunday, especially chicken. Soon eating poultry became cheap and common. It was at this time, also, that turkey was introduced from North America, becoming another popular kind of fowl to eat for both rich and poor. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">Generally, however, meats eaten by peasants or common people was not considered fit for the nobility to eat. This included, for example, sausages, tough old beef, and salted and preserved meats. Organ meats, such as livers, kidneys, lungs, spleen, heart, and intestines, were particularly associated with peasants. They were were considered tough and hearty and, therefore, better suited to more 'rustical stomachs'. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090884415_9Njfiizz_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="328" src="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090884415_9Njfiizz_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Pinterest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">However, in early modern Europe, especially before the Reformation (in the 1500s) and during the period of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Church prescribed between 140 and 160 days per year of abstinence from meat and other animal products, such as eggs, milk, and butter. This period included Lent, Advent, and every Wednesday and Friday. Fish, therefore, succeeded as an excellent alternative, becoming the cultural definition of a meatless diet. However, even fish became divided into social levels, with salted and preserved fish seen as a symbol of poverty and subordination, while fresh fish was seen as a sign of wealth. This was because fresh fish was very difficult for common people to come by, with most of the fishing lakes or rivers 'owned' by the nobility. However, by the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the ability of fish wagons to transport fresh fish over longer distances, fresh fish became more common and popular. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">All this social dividing of the meat and fish began to fall away as time went on and it came to depend more on who could afford what kind of meat or fish to eat. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">__________________</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><b><u>References: </u></b></span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Albala, Ken, <em>Eating Right
in the Renaissance</em><span class="apple-converted-space">, Los Angeles:
University of California Press</span>, 2002, 184-216<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Albala, Ken, 'Religion and Food', in <i>Food in Early Modern
Europe</i>, 2003, p. 193-208</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Montanari, Massimo, ‘To Each His Own’, in <i>The Culture of Food</i>, Oxford, UK & Cambridge, USA: Blackwell, p.
84-89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">'Culinary History: The Evolution of Cooking', Episode 2: 'Feasting
in the Middle Ages' , written by Michele
Barriere and Phillippe Allante,
Jean-Yves Huchet and Nicolas Goldzahl (Executive Producers), VM
Group, 2005<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">'Culinary History: The Evolution of Cooking', Episode 3: 'The
Delights of the Renaissance', Written by
Michele Barriere and Phillippe Allante, Executive producers: Jean-Yves Huchet
and Nicolas Goldzahl, VM Group, 2005<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">'Culinary History: The Evolution of Cooking', Episode 4:
'Enlightened Savours' , Written by
Michele Barriere and Phillippe Allante, Executive producers: Jean-Yves Huchet
and Nicolas Goldzahl, VM Group, 2005</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px !important;" /></a></div>
Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-81046194070538613352012-08-21T02:09:00.001+10:002012-08-21T02:11:00.289+10:00Pride Cometh Before An Iceberg <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Exactly 100 years ago a great tragedy occurred at sea that has both haunted and fascinated us ever since. Today I've got a very special guest-post by Elizabeth Rose from <i><a href="http://lizzyslovelylibrary.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Living on Literary Lane.</a></i> She is on a month-long blog tour promoting her new novel, <i>Violets Are Blue. </i></span><span style="font-size: large;">I haven't read her novel, yet, but I can assure you that I can't wait to do so! </span><span style="font-size: large;">The novel is set in the context of the tragedy of the </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">Titanic</span></i><i style="font-size: x-large;">, </i><span style="font-size: large;">so I asked Elizabeth to share with us what she learned from her research into this historical event which holds many lessons for us today as it did then. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So, dear readers, I give you, Elizabeth Rose!</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://lizzyslovelylibrary.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/want-to-win-free-copy-of-violets-are.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="179" src="http://i775.photobucket.com/albums/yy32/mutemathgirl/vabtourbanner.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://community.warplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/rms_titanic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" id="il_fi" src="http://community.warplanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/rms_titanic.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Google Images</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is known as the greatest marine disaster in the world. Mention the name <i>Titanic </i>to anyone, and they will immediately think of the "unsinkable" ocean liner and her tragic end on April 14th, 1912. The film of the same name is one of the highest grossing movies in the world (though whether that has to do with the historical background [flawed though it may be] or the romance is a subject worth debating). Everyone knows about the <i>Titanic.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Having reached the centennial of her infamous sinking just this April, the <i>Titanic </i>seems to be present in everyone's minds now more than ever. Why is that? What lures us to the heartbreaking story? Perhaps it is the courageous way in which men of all classes stood aside to let their beloved wives and children go first in the lifeboats, knowing full well that it meant perishing in the icy waves. Perhaps it is purely the drama and excitement of the night. Or perhaps it is the fact that this grand ocean liner whose makers claimed was unsinkable actually struck an iceberg and went down, causing the deaths of nearly fifteen hundred people.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It has always amazed me that the <i>Mayflower</i> — a tiny vessel only used for carrying wine across the Atlantic — managed to convey one hundred and twenty Pilgrims to the New World in the year 1620. They withstood tumutuous waves and horrid sickness, but by the power of the Living God, they arrived on the shores of Cape Cod relatively unharmed. Surely if the <i>Mayflower </i>can make it across the ocean in 1620, a fabulously outfitted ocean liner such as the <i>Titanic </i>can carry her twenty-two hundred passengers safely nearly three hundred years later. After all, if it was good in the "old days", it's sure to be better in modern times, right?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, whether that's true or not, it was the mindset that governed the makers of the <i>Titanic </i>and nearly everyone living in the early 1900s. Bigger is better. Size means everything. And if you aren't willing to match the grandeur of your new ship with your confidence, you may as well go home, because you'll never survive in this era. (A bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.) Yet, when we study history, we see that such an opinion does not last forever, and all those who are not humble eventually will meet their end.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This isn't sounding good for the <i>Titanic</i>, is it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Before we continue discussing this particular ocean liner, let us move backwards a few centuries. Good, good. You're looking at two ships docked in the harbor, but the vessels are much smaller than the one on which you previously laid your eyes. Yes, you are watching the aforementioned <i>Mayflower</i>, as well as her sister ship, the <i>Speedwell, </i>though the latter will not be making the journey across the ocean. You glance cautiously at those around you — a seemingly solemn group, but still cheerful. Some of the younger children are chasing each other around the cargo waiting to be loaded, but their mother silences them with a few quick words, pulling her little ones back to her side. You look up at the ship that is to carry you and your one-hundred and nineteen companions, and wonder if you'll ever make it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You were right to worry — the journey alone was tumultuous. Seasickness, monotony, and the crowded place 'tween decks where all of the passengers are required to spend their hours. The worst part was probably during that terrible storm, when the main beam broke and needed to be secured with the large screw some of your companions had brought from England. Of course, Mistress Hopkins' expected child <i>would </i>choose that very moment to arrive, and John Howland <i>would </i>keep falling overboard and being blown back on again.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But somehow, despite all those troubles, you and your family and friends managed to travel across the cold ocean safely. Though you are landing at the barren Cape Cod, with little in the way of shelter and winter fast approaching, you kneel when your feet have finally touched the shore. You lift your face to Heaven, praising the Lord and thanking Him for His mercy on your small ship. By the hand of Providence, you have made it to the New World.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We will be leaving the 1600s for a while now and moving forward to 1912. Once again, you're standing on a dock and watching a ship (this is all becoming rather familiar and predictable, is it not? Just wait until 11:49 P.M. on the 14th, and you'll get enough adventure to last you your life). You watch as men, women, and children are loaded on to the ship. A young Irish mother, walking slowly because of the child she bears, clutches her toddler's hand as they cross the gangplank. You watch her turn back for a moment, a single tear caught in her blue eye like a gem, but then she enters and you can no longer see her in the bustle of people around you. Trying to catch a glimpse of the object of her attention, you see her husband standing a few yards behind you, his expression identical to hers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A man's loud voice to your right shakes you and makes you turn curiously towards the noise. His wife is so covered in satin, fur, and pearls that you can barely tell where they leave off and she begins. Her hat, so enormous it could have its own staircase, threatens to be knocked off by the wind, were it not for the gloved hand she kept on it. The husband is the one you heard speaking, and he is dashing man in the clothes of the upper class. He is shaking his head at his wife as they stroll towards the gangplank.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Nonsense, my dear, you speak utter nonsense." His voice is loud enough to carry through all of Southampton, but the speaker doesn't seem to notice.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I only said that there was a slight chance—" she begins, but he cuts her voice off.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"A slight chance of what?<i> Exactly.</i>" He knods his head confidently. "Nothing. Why, of all the ships in the world, you say <i>this </i>one will sink? The idea alone is positively preposterous. Come, Claire, I believed you were above such superstition."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I am not being superstitious," his wife argues, a bit of fire in her tone.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Good. Then we are agreed." He takes her arm once more, and they continue towards the gangplank.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I hardly need to continue this story, as we all know how it is going to end. At 11:49 P.M., the <i>Titanic</i>'s hull was scraped by a large iceberg, and at exactly 2:29 A.M., she sank beneath the waves, leaving what little was left of her passenger stranded in lifeboats and clinging to other flotation devices. It would be several hours before the <i>Carpathia </i>would arrive to rescue them, and for many, that was several hours too late.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You may be wondering why I gave this little history lesson. (I assure you that boring my readers with dull facts they already know was <i>not </i>one of my motives.) In truth, it was not entirely to relay an old story of a famous marine tragedy, but to issue a warning. In Proverbs 16, verses 17 through 18, it says, <b>"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." </b>Though you have most likely heard the story of the <i>Titanic </i>too many times to count, you may still be in the dark as to the destructive effects of pride. Too much pride and self-confidence has been the downfall of many an ancient leader who thought himself indomitable, and now it has even caused the end of a ship thought so "unsinkable" she didn't need half her lifeboats. You see how ridiculous it is to argue against the sovereignty of God?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">(Also, if you ever set foot on a ship and they say that lifeboats for all of the passengers is a waste of deck space, I suggest you find another way to get home.)</span></i><br />
<br />
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>. . .</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1342802861p5/6445849.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img alt="Elizabeth Rose" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1342802861p5/6445849.jpg" /></a><i></i></div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>Elizab</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><i>eth Rose is a follower of the Most High who seeks to live every day of her life in accordance with 1 Corinthians 10:31. She loves all sorts of books (the thicker the better), is convinced that Irish Breakfast tea is the closest thing this world will get to heaven, dances until her feet ache, stays up until all hours writing, wears pearls at every opportunity, and obsesses over Les Misérables and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Her debut novel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Violets-Are-Blue-Elizabeth-Rose/dp/1475090056/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344099029&sr=8-1&keywords=violets+are+blue+elizabeth+rose" target="_blank">Violets Are Blue</a>, was published in May 2012. You can find her on <a href="http://lizzyslovelylibrary.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Literary Lane</a>, most likely with The Count of Monte Cristo in hand, and ink on her fingers. </i></span></i></div>
</div>
</div>
Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-23525789399915015432012-07-15T15:27:00.001+10:002012-07-15T15:27:46.481+10:00Worthy of Praise and Glory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3yDYXmki-A4_6bpD78OFFfg1bYp_Eov8z_HkFRf5eFtxV3PWvkrVgrNA39nU3ExIHgrlKE4Pd2t2HNEAh3q0lztw33Jyn1a4JC4ezmQfCK3_RCGAKyKmMefUgfJagNSHEovN8jdkwVQ/s1600/594px-Gloria_in_Excelsis_Deo_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3yDYXmki-A4_6bpD78OFFfg1bYp_Eov8z_HkFRf5eFtxV3PWvkrVgrNA39nU3ExIHgrlKE4Pd2t2HNEAh3q0lztw33Jyn1a4JC4ezmQfCK3_RCGAKyKmMefUgfJagNSHEovN8jdkwVQ/s200/594px-Gloria_in_Excelsis_Deo_001.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This week I'd like to share with you a lovely Latin doxology that has blessed me greatly. I love the old hymns of the early Church centuries. There is something about them that is not matched in later Church music, most especially in our time. These old Church chants and hymns, including, for example, the Gregorian chants, were simple but so deep and profound all at the same time. Their melodies are so deep, they touch the heart and soul. They are so reverent and truly worthy of the greatness of our Lord, God, and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Many of them were also sung by the martyrs in the early centuries - that's how early they are. Yet they are still just as new for us now.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The one I'm sharing today is 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo'. It is sung by the choir, Libera. The melody is based on Saint-Saens's Organ Symphony. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a short history of this hymn: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">The Gloria is an ancient hymn of praise to the Trinity that has been in use in the Church since the second century. The opening line of the hymn is taken from Scripture (Lk 2:14), where the angels announce the birth of Christ to the shepherds. The hymn was composed in Greek some time in the second century and can be found recommended as a daily morning prayer in book VII of the Apostolic Constitutions (3rd/4th century). It was introduced to the west by St. Hilary of Poitiers (d 368), who was the first to introduce hymns into the Western Church.</span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;">St Hillary was an uncompromising foe of Arianism, a heresy which denied the divinity of Christ and was condemned at the Council of Nicea in 325. St. Hilary's opposition to Arianism earned himself the title of "Malleus Arianorum", the Hammer of the Arians, along with the ire of the Arian Emperor Constantius, who exiled him to Phrygia in 356. While St. Hilary was in Phrygia, he was exposed to the hymns in use amongst the eastern Christians of the time. Upon his return home he began to introduce hymns into the western liturgy, borrowing the Gloria from the east, as well as composing some of his own. The Latin translation of the Gloria below, which has been used since the late 4th century, is likely his.</span></div>
</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Quoted from: <a href="http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Trinitas/Gloria.html" style="text-align: left;">http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Trinitas/Gloria.html</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/0hPUgHh-EqI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a close translation of the Latin Lyrics (as best as I could make them out): </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Chorus: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Glory to God in the Highest</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And on earth peace to men</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We bless Thee, we praise Thee</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We worship Thee, we glorify Thee</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Thanks we give to Thee</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Because of Thy great glory</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For Thou alone art Holy, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thou Lord alone, Most High</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Chorus: Gloria in excelsis deo....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Who take away the sin of the world, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Have mercy on us</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Who sits at the right hand of the Father, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Have mercy on us</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Father God, Almighty </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Lamb of God</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">King of Heaven, Father God</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;">Chorus: Gloria in excelsis deo...</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">___________________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Here are the original lyrics of the hymn and the translation:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="2" style="background-color: #ffffcc; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left; width: 711px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: justify; width: 332px;"><span style="color: #af0000;">G</span><span style="color: #af0000;">LORIA</span> in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.</td><td style="text-align: justify; width: 333px;"><span style="color: #af0000;">G</span><span style="color: #af0000;">LORY</span> to God in the highest, and peace on earth to men of good will.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: justify; width: 332px;">LAUDAMUS te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te, gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.</td><td style="text-align: justify; width: 333px;">WE praise Thee, we bless Thee, we adore Thee, we glorify Thee, we give Thee thanks for Thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: justify; width: 332px;">DOMINE Fili unigenite, Iesu Christe, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis; qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis.</td><td style="text-align: justify; width: 333px;">O Lord Jesus Christ, only begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Thou who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; Thou who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.</td></tr>
<tr><td style="text-align: justify; width: 332px;">QUONIAM tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Iesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen</td><td style="text-align: justify; width: 333px;">FOR Thou alone art the Holy One, Thou alone art the Lord, Thou alone art the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Taken from: <a href="http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Trinitas/Gloria.html">http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Trinitas/Gloria.html</a>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God bless, </span><br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-5934563880736007532012-07-07T18:04:00.000+10:002012-07-07T18:04:00.422+10:00Food in Days Gone-By... Flour and Bread-Crumbs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ieS_lXNh_VUHJE6IrQ7HLZfC16vMcdvVSEx7hIFlmPrRzcw8I0IHmBj955_1nJM7jMgXSZ-_Kfd8SBEE64nl-kgbWQQ0vmxqvC8GU2j6D01h-ArVfCg_RdLP0iGDpgvtYhyphenhyphenO3E1m-CQ/s1600/food1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="92" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ieS_lXNh_VUHJE6IrQ7HLZfC16vMcdvVSEx7hIFlmPrRzcw8I0IHmBj955_1nJM7jMgXSZ-_Kfd8SBEE64nl-kgbWQQ0vmxqvC8GU2j6D01h-ArVfCg_RdLP0iGDpgvtYhyphenhyphenO3E1m-CQ/s640/food1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Have you ever wondered what food you would eat and how you would eat it if you lived long ago in Europe? What and how did people eat in those famous eras such as in the </span><span style="font-size: large;">Tudor or Reformation or Renaissance or even Enlightenment times (these times together are known by historians as the Early Modern Period) - eras th</span><span style="font-size: large;">at have become the subject of histories, stories, novels, and movies? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, last semester, I had the opportunity to do a bit of research on this. So, here are some interesting things I've learned! My plan is to cover this subject in a small serial - each time covering a different kind of food or eating habit. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">By the way, I've never done anything like this before. So, please excuse any crude beginnings:)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Bread</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media-cache-ec9.pinterest.com/upload/74239093827850187_latGj8W6_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://media-cache-ec9.pinterest.com/upload/74239093827850187_latGj8W6_f.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">For early-modern Europeans the staple food was bread, eaten with almost anything and at every meal. If there was other food available but there was a scarcity of bread, it was considered a famine! That's how essential it was. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Bread, however, was not just a staple food. It also had a lot of social significance. There were three main different kinds of breads that suited three different kinds of social status. A person from any particular social class would not dream of eating bread belonging to a higher or lower status than that of his or her own! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Imagine these three scenes (fictional characters) to find out which bread would have been eaten by whom. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Scene 1: </u></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091122649_YfjpzDoh_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091122649_YfjpzDoh_f.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Master Giovanni<br />
<i>via Pinterest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Michael hurried towards the town bakery in the early hours of the morning. He had to collect a special supply of flour for Master Giovanni, Chief Cook of Lord Shaftsbury's household. There was to be a banquet of special magnificence to be held that night with many distinguished guests invited. Last night, Master Giovanni went into a panic when he discovered that they had ran out of the best white flour in the kitchen, purely milled with no mixed grains or any chaff. The poor man could barely sleep. Before dawn he jerked Michael awake and sent him on this urgent errand. He had to get to the bakery before the long queues.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Finally, weary and breathless, Michael reached the bakery. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Mr. Jones! Mr. Jones!' he cried. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The baker was just opening his bakery. Yes, he reached him on time. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'What is it, Michael, my lad? Why the hurry? Hold on a minute and catch your breath....yes, that's good...well, now, what can I do for you?' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Please, Mr. Jones, have you got any white flour in stock? Master Giovanni needs it urgently. There's to be a banquet at the house tonight.' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Ah, yes...I've heard about that already. Come, with me to the back of the shop, I'm sure I've got some there.' </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">Sure enough, and to Michael's relief, Mr. Jones had a large sack of the best white flour to be found in the whole county. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Helping Michael haul the sack unto his shoulder, he bid him 'Good Day, Michael, my lad!' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Thanks, Mr. Jones. Good day to you, too!' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'And greet Master Giovanni, for me,' he shouted as Michael started off.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">'Yes, Mr. Jones, sir.' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec3.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091122655_rDCSi2RJ_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://media-cache-ec3.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091122655_rDCSi2RJ_f.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. Jones, the baker, and Michael<br />
<i>via Pinterest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Michael set off to the Manor as quickly as possible with his heavy load. Now Master Giovanni has all the flour to make his special bread and bake all those delicious bakeries that the lord, his family, and his guests love. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">*******************</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Scene 2: </u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">10 year-old Harry stirred and opened his eyes. He lay awake in bed for a while listening. Mother was already up. He could hear her working hard in the kitchen downstairs preparing breakfast and, probably even lunch and supper, too! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Father had been up even earlier. He must be out in the fields by now. He had to work really hard to pay the rent on the farm and have left over to put food on the table and provide clothing for his family.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Harry groaned as he pulled himself out of the covers and shook off the sticking hay. The loft has become his bedroom now since there was no room with his younger brothers, Willie and Johnny, in the bedroom. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He looked out of the dirty window...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Cold and damp as usual,' he muttered to himself. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Then he heard his mother call...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Harry! Are y'up yet? Come down quick and h've some breakfast...you're father needs ya to help him with planting the lower field today.' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Yes, mother, coming down,' he called back as he buttoned-up his shirt and slipped down the ladder. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Willie and Johnny were already munching at their slices of brown bread with slices of goat's cheese and drinking down their glasses of warm milk. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/20055160810931429_odJHyw3a_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/20055160810931429_odJHyw3a_f.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">mother cooking<br />
via <i>Pinterest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">'Come on, son...here's a slice of bread for you, too...help yourself now with the cheese...hurry now...you 'aven't got all day...' his mother directed as she continued kneading the bread dough for dinner. A nice hot stew was obviously in the making as well. Evidence of turnips was all over the kitchen table!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Harry bit on his slice of bread and cheese. It was warm and good.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">He then paused and</span><span style="font-size: large;"> asked, 'Mother, Mr. Jones, the baker, once told me that Lord Shaftsbury and his family eat white bread everyday!'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Willie broke in, 'What's white bread? What does it taste like?' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Oh, don't you know anything, Willie....it's bread with no bran or chaff...it's pure white inside and very soft and fluffy,' answered Harry with an air of possessing superior knowledge. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'How d'ye know?' retorted Willie. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Mr. Jones, told me,' he shot back. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Really soft? Oh, I'd like to try that someday, wouldn't you like mother?' asked little Johnny. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Well, now, children...that's enough,' answered mother. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/172122016978816848_rcXwKCw2_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/172122016978816848_rcXwKCw2_f.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">brown bread<br />
via <i>Pinterest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">'Don't even think of it, Johnny, lad. That kind'of'bread is not for our kind. Only folks up in the big manor get to eat that. We're poor farmers...brown bread with bran is what's for us,' mother explained.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'You've got be grateful to the Good Lord, though, m'boys. Never complain, eh! There can be worse. There're poorer folk than us and harder times can come to us, too,' she continued. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Yes, mother,' they all said in unison. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Now, finish up and start y're chores nice and quick.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Stuffing their mouths with the last crumbs, they quickly dashed out the kitchen in obedience. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">*****************</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Scene 3: </u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Master Giovanni sighed with great relief upon seeing Michael returning with his precious load of white flour. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Well, done, m'boy,' he exclaimed as he helped Michael lower the sack and soon began opening it and retrieving a measure of it's precious contents for the first recipe. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Michael was exhausted. He hadn't done so much running in a while. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He settled down before a table at the back of the kitchen, next to the side door, to eat the little breakfast Penny, one of the kitchen staff, had left for him. Just a slice of brown bread with cheese. No ale. Master Giovanni forbade it on days like this. There was plenty of work to be done. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Suddenly, he heard a bit of a scuffle out the side-door, then a feeble knock. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Oh, dear....must be Jane, the maid, with buckets of water, or it could be a beggar looking for handouts...' he muttered under his breath as he opened the door cautiously. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sure enough, it was the latter. A shaggy-headed, dirty-looking tramp.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Please, sir, 'ave anything to spare a poor'old'chap?' he asked pitifully. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Ah, yes, sure,' said Michael, 'Just wait here a moment. Won't be long.' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He went to a side pantry...<i>where is that basket? Ah! Yes, here it is! </i>Master Giovanni always kept something for such poor folk. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He returned to the door and gave the poor chap a couple of slices of very dark brown bread. The man took it gratefully. Folks like him were used to that sort of bread....so filled with chaff and bran, it was almost black...not necessarily delicious, but filling nonetheless! </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091122658_xXWepR0K_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091122658_xXWepR0K_f.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Black Bread<br />
via <i>Pinterest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;">Michael, then went to the table and gave him some warm water, which the poor man also took gratefully and then hobbled away onto his next destination. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">*******************</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">End of Scenes </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, what do you think? Can you guess now what kind of bread was eaten be whom? This applied generally to the entire early-modern period. Not only in Britain, but throughout Europe, too. </span></div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">_________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Resources:</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Albala, Ken, <em>Eating Right
in the Renaissance</em><span class="apple-converted-space">, Los Angeles:
University of California Press</span>, 2002, 184-216<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Camporesi, Piero, "Bread of dreams",<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em>History Today</em>, Apr 89, Vol. 39 Issue 4, pp. 14-21<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">'Culinary History: The Evolution of Cooking', Episode 2: 'Feasting in the Middle Ages' , written by Michele Barriere and Phillippe Allante, Jean-Yves Huchet and Nicolas Goldzahl (Executive Producers), VM Group, 2005<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">'Culinary History: The Evolution of Cooking', Episode 3: 'The Delights of the Renaissance', Written by Michele Barriere and Phillippe Allante, Executive producers: Jean-Yves Huchet and Nicolas Goldzahl, VM Group, 2005<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">'Culinary History: The Evolution of Cooking', Episode 4: 'Enlightened Savours' , Written by Michele Barriere and Phillippe Allante, Executive producers: Jean-Yves Huchet and Nicolas Goldzahl, VM Group, 2005</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Montanari, Massimo, ‘To Each His Own’, in <i>The Culture of Food</i>, Oxford, UK & Cambridge, USA: Blackwell, p.
84-89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E., <i>Early
Modern Europe, 1450-1789</i>, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-23827228634606392772012-06-16T18:01:00.001+10:002012-06-16T18:01:05.115+10:00God Makes Kings...and Queens, too!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">With Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations still fresh in our memories, I'd like to share something that you probably won't find in the normal history books about the so-called 'chance of history' that brought Elizabeth to the throne. Until she was 10 years old or so, young Elizabeth was not directly in-line to the throne of England.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Diamond+Jubilee+Queen+Elizabeth+II+Attends+hCCvlp-2_21l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Diamond+Jubilee+Queen+Elizabeth+II+Attends+hCCvlp-2_21l.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Elizabeth II</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Many of you would've probably watched the movie </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_620178091" style="font-size: x-large;"><i>The</i> </a><i style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/bertie-and-elizabeth.html" target="_blank">King's Speech</a>. </i><span style="font-size: large;">It </span><span style="font-size: large;">tells the story of how it all came about very well (its a very good movie by the way, except for some course language used and some swearing in some scenes - which could be muted while watching). Another good rendering of the story (covering it from beginning to end) is found in the movie </span><a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/bertie-and-elizabeth.html" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank"><i>Bertie and Elizabeth</i>.</a><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Here, though, is a brief overview of the story:</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.swingfashionista.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The-New-Zealand-Railways-Magazine-Volume-12-Issue-2-May-1-1937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.swingfashionista.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The-New-Zealand-Railways-Magazine-Volume-12-Issue-2-May-1-1937.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King George VI and Queen Elizabeth<br />(Queen Elizabeth's Parents)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the early 1930s, just before the outbreak of World War II, England passed through a very significant crisis. In many ways, it was at a crossroads. The choices made would have indirect, but very significant consequences for England, the Empire, and perhaps the rest of the free world. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">After King George V (Queen Elisabeth II's grandfather) died, his eldest son, David, became King Edward VIII. His reign would be very brief, however, because of his own ungodly choices. He insisted on marrying the twice-divorced-American woman, Mrs. Wallace Simpson. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.peoplequiz.com/images/bios/king_edward_VIII.j-10815.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.peoplequiz.com/images/bios/king_edward_VIII.j-10815.jpg" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edward VIII</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">According to the laws of the Church of England, this was not possible since the reigning monarch is considered the head of the Church of England and the Defender of the faith. (Ironically, all this started from the English Reformation of King Henry VIII!). </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Well, King Edward VIII was given a choice by Parliament and the government. Either to forget about Wallace Simpson and stay king or insist on marrying her and abdicate! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No monarch ever abdicated before in the entire history of the British monarchy. Edward VIII made his choice and abdicated. The first ever to do so.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">With this done, his younger brother, Albert, suddenly found himself on the throne of England and his daughter, Elizabeth, next in-line. This was a total shock to everyone and most especially, to Albert, who became King George VI (Queen Elizabeth II's father).</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thestandardedition.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/king-george-vi-painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://thestandardedition.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/king-george-vi-painting.jpg" width="356" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King George VI</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Hollywood and the media was taken by storm with this story. Many thought it as absolutely fairy-tale-like romance...a king giving up his kingdom for the woman he loved... </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But as time went on and darkness fell over Europe and the world, people's perspectives changed dramatically. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For it was not long after George VI's coronation, that Hitler began his blitzkrieg of Europe. Britain declared war on Germany and was now in great danger. Britain needed a leader, a source of inspiration for the nation. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, here comes one of things that have fascinated me very much. You may even see a little glimpse of what I see as some of God's sense of humour in it too. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the leadership of the Axis powers, especially as seen in Hitler, amazing eloquence and charisma was wielded by its tyrants. From the surviving archival footage, one cannot but be amazed at the hypnotic-charisma of Hitler as he rallied Germans with his speeches in those large Nazi rallies. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We would think that God would raise a leader in Britain with similarly eloquent qualities to counteract this dark evil descending over Europe. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Not so. God choose two leaders for Britain who had speech impairments, Winston Churchill and King George VI!! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Their speeches were not as charismatic as Hitler's but through them they rallied Britain (and later the rest of the free world) to the cause of freedom and good. See the <i>King's Speech.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec0.pinterest.com/upload/210472982555708385_HFMUfIyh_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinterest.com/upload/210472982555708385_HFMUfIyh_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Victory In Europe Day (VE Day)<br />Left to Right: Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, King George VI, and Princess<br />Margaret </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">King George VI's deep sense of duty and commitment to his people and the land of Great Britain was a major source of encouragement for everyone. He and his family became deeply involved with the sufferings of the people of Britain during the Blitz. They helped raised the moral of the people. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Most came to believe that if Edward VIII, with his selfish ways and lack of any sense of duty to his people, would have made Britain really vulnerable. Not only that, he and Mrs. Simpson were sympathetic to the Nazis. If Britain had fallen to Hitler....well, history would have turned out quite differently...oh, but there are no 'ifs' in God's world, as one Godly Christian once said. Everything is ordained by His eternal wisdom and knowledge. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Here, at last, I come to the part you will NOT find in the history books. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You see, this did not just happen. God moved his people to pray during the crises of Edward VIII's abdication and He answered their prayers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">One of those intercessors was the man of God, Rees Howells, from Wales who started the Bible College in Swansea. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is what went on behind the scenes and newspaper reports, as told by Norman Grubb (someone who was there at the college at the time - the same one who wrote the biography of C.T. Studd by the way):</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1936, there came the serious national crisis over King Edward VIII and his proposed marriage. In this again the Lord led the College to take a stand in prayer. The diaries of the daily meetings give the following account: </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>December 4.</i> "The News about the King has come to light in the morning papers, and the Director [Rees Howells, the founder] tells us how serious conditions are. We came back in the evening and pleaded with the Lord to guide the king, and give wisdom and discernment to all those concerned in this crisis."</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>December 5.</i> "Day of prayer in College. Situation in England very grave, because it concerns not only our land, but the British Empire."</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>December 6. </i>"Day of prayer and fasting in the College. We pray for the Empire in its present crisis. The Lord reveals that it is His will for Edward to abdicate. Mr. Howells was as strong as a lion in the fight, and declared, 'Edward is not to reign, or the Lord has not spoken by me.' There is a wonderful victory as we believe in the evening."</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>December 7. </i>"There is thanksgiving over the victory of yesterday. The papers reveal that while at the end of last week the king was challenging the position, now he is anxious to do only what will be best for the Empire." </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>December 9. </i>"Believing for the Lord to help King Edward to make decision according to God's will, and that his soul may be blessed." </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>December 10. </i>"Came bake at 2.20 p.m. to ask the Lord to control the country, now that the news of the abdication of King Edward VIII is known."</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>December 11.</i> "We are thankful for this believing of the Holy Spirit. The Lord has saved the Empire, and raised the standard of life in our beloved land."</span></blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Norman Grubb, <i>Rees Howells Intercessor: The Welsh Coal Miner a Prince with God</i>, Pennsylvania, USA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1980, pp. 215-216 </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Isn't our God amazing! What I saw in this story is God's amazing Providence. People sometimes wonder where was God in all this darkness of World War II? Well, this is one glimpse. He prepares the way and involves His people in it, too. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.talismancoins.com/catalog/CJ_QEII_Jewels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.talismancoins.com/catalog/CJ_QEII_Jewels.jpg" width="234" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Elizabeth II</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, God makes Kings...and Queens, too...as well as Presidents, Prime Ministers, and all other rulers. Now some are Satan's choice, but that never catches God off-guard. He uses even these for His glorious purposes and for the good of His people. We must believe this. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This story also encourages us and shows us the responsibility we have to pray in order to have Godly rulers. He guides our prayers and He answers them. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">One last thought before closing this very lengthy post. This story keenly reminds me of these verses: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'He hath shewed strength with his arm; he scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.'</i> (Luke 1:51-52)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing...All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity...It is he...that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity...' </i>(Isaiah 40: 15, 17, 22, 23)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwHIJwWWpcOD0UKPSzocbIndGL6y_2irRMyw_9kj1mHy2Tf3DpIu1xbe5lWIWy_SsC2Yc1_1wSLCn_4zywszfRWfw6yiPblvjjiX0JUrIGVYsYW7oq1g2QkTYmBmUx5lY1hWbgTnSuR9U/s1600/My+Signature+-+C9E74114466B524DA63C36B7C52E3BB9.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwHIJwWWpcOD0UKPSzocbIndGL6y_2irRMyw_9kj1mHy2Tf3DpIu1xbe5lWIWy_SsC2Yc1_1wSLCn_4zywszfRWfw6yiPblvjjiX0JUrIGVYsYW7oq1g2QkTYmBmUx5lY1hWbgTnSuR9U/s1600/My+Signature+-+C9E74114466B524DA63C36B7C52E3BB9.png" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">________________________</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Resources: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mark Logue and Peter Conradi, <i>The King's Speech: How One Man Saved The British Monarchy</i>, New York: Sterling, 2012</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><span style="text-align: center;">Norman Grubb, </span><i style="text-align: center;">Rees Howells Intercessor: The Welsh Coal Miner a Prince with God</i><span style="text-align: center;">, Pennsylvania, USA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1980, pp. 215-216 </span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-11176567773386633802012-05-27T00:25:00.005+10:002012-05-27T00:25:48.514+10:00Mercy Above the Sceptred Way<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091048623_UK9mh3Jj_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="433" src="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/207024914091048623_UK9mh3Jj_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image via <a href="http://www.mercy-and-truth.com/2011/01/multitude-monday.html" target="_blank"><i>Mercy and Truth</i> Blog</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our Land. <b>Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.</b> Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.' (Psalm 85:9-11) </i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Mercy and truth or mercy and justice are often very difficult to reconcile. They can often seem so contradictory. However, this what God has done in saving us. We deserve justice for our sins, but in God's Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, mercy triumphs. Praise the Lord for His great love and mercy! </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/165577723770226194_2GamMBmd_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/165577723770226194_2GamMBmd_f.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oliver Cromwell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Psalm 85 was one of Oliver Cromwell's favourite psalms. He repeated it often in many of his speeches, especially the ones he gave at the end of his life. He often referred to it as he championed religious freedom (one of his favourite causes - even when he was attacked for it) and he clearly saw it as a vision for the spiritual welfare of his nation. He was very concerned that many Christians were often over zealous with the truth, being self-righteous and concerned with justice bu with very little mercy for one another</span><span style="font-size: large;">. That grieved him very much throughout his life. One cannot fail to see this when reading his personal letters and his public speeches.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> In one of those speeches </span><span style="font-size: large;">to one of his parliaments</span><span style="font-size: large;"> as Lord Protector, he encouraged the new MPs to apply this psalm to their lives and in their governing of the nation. He said: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Mercy and Truth shall meet together" [Psalm 85]. Here is a great deal of "truth" among professors, but very little "mercy"! They are ready to cut the throats of one another. But when we are brought into the right way, we shall be <i>merciful</i> as well as orthodox: and we know who it is that saith, "if a man could speak with the tongues of men and angles, and yet want <i>that</i>, he is but sounding brass and a tingling cymbal!" [I Corinthians 13:1] </span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Thomas Carlyle, </span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations</i></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, 'palatino linotype', palatino, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">, (London: Chapman and Hall, 1894), Vol, IV of V, pp. 210-222.</span> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">(Read full speech <a href="http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/oliver-cromwell/oliver-cromwells-letters-and-speeches-hci/page-73-oliver-cromwells-letters-and-speeches-hci.shtml" target="_blank">here</a>)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We still need this today as Christians with one another, in the home and in Church, and with those around us. We must not hold onto justice and truth without mercy. I think this quote from Shakespeare's <i>Merchant of Venice</i> puts it very beautifully: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="191" style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-size: large;">The quality of mercy is not strain'd,</span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="192">It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven</a></div>
<a href="" name="193"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="193"></a><a href="" name="193">Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;</a></div>
<a href="" name="194"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="194"></a><a href="" name="194">It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:</a></div>
<a href="" name="195"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="195"></a><a href="" name="195">'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes</a></div>
<a href="" name="196"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="196"></a><a href="" name="196">The throned monarch better than his crown;</a></div>
<a href="" name="197"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="197"></a><a href="" name="197">His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,</a></div>
<a href="" name="198"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="198"></a><a href="" name="198">The attribute to awe and majesty,</a></div>
<a href="" name="199"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="199"></a><a href="" name="199">Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;</a></div>
<a href="" name="200"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="200"></a><a href="" name="200">But mercy is above this sceptred sway;</a></div>
<a href="" name="201"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="201"></a><a href="" name="201">It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,</a></div>
<a href="" name="202"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="202"></a><a href="" name="202">It is an attribute to God himself;</a></div>
<a href="" name="203"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="203"></a><a href="" name="203">And earthly power doth then show likest God's</a></div>
<a href="" name="204"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="204"></a><a href="" name="204">When mercy seasons justice. Therefore...</a></div>
<a href="" name="205"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="205"></a><a href="" name="205">Though justice be thy plea, consider this,</a></div>
<a href="" name="206"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="206"></a><a href="" name="206">That, in the course of justice, none of us</a></div>
<a href="" name="207"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="207"></a><a href="" name="207">Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;</a></div>
<a href="" name="208"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="208"></a><a href="" name="208">And that same prayer doth teach us all to render</a></div>
<a href="" name="209"></a><div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="209"></a><a href="" name="209">The deeds of mercy. </a></div>
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I</i></blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, Lord, gives us hearts of truth and mercy always. Help us remember that it is Your mercy that saves us. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God bless,</span><br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-82478839470595089322012-05-13T00:27:00.000+10:002012-05-13T00:27:00.778+10:00Beacons of the Past...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache5.pinterest.com/upload/180495897535905281_H29d0Ysz_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="http://media-cache5.pinterest.com/upload/180495897535905281_H29d0Ysz_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Byron Bay, NSW, Australia</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It's been a long time since my last post and I do apologize to all my readers for this. But it has been a rather busy two or three weeks, with major university assignments and all. Perhaps sometime I'll share some of the interesting things I've been learning. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In the mean time, however, you've all probably noticed that there have been some major changes to this blog. Yes, I've changed the blog design. This is not a final look, however. More importantly, though, I've changed the name of my blog to 'Beacons of the Past'.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I felt that the older title of 'Gems of Faith in History' was a bit of a mouthful of title! This new one is much shorter and easier to remember. I think it is also more captivating and perhaps a bit different and thus more of an eye-catcher, which I learned is an important part of any title to a book, article, or a blog/website. This is the first thing that a person sees upon opening a blog-page. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">More importantly, I believe this new title captures more of what I desire this blog to be. While the discovery and the study of history, His story, often could be seen as an uncovering of gems from the dark mine of the past, more and more I feel that it is more than that. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Those familiar with the movie <i>Lord of the Rings: Return of the King</i>, may recall the moment of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LGJ7evrAg" target="_blank">the lighting of the beacons of Amon Din</a>. A moment when Pippin, at the instruction of Gandalf, lights the first beacon of the chief city of Gondor, Minas Tireth, as a signal for help to their allies from Rohan. There were seven beacons set across the mountains linking Gondor with Rohan (a fast way of communication). On each peak were watchmen, who would light the beacon when they saw the one closest to them lit. There is an amazing feeling of joy, hope, and inspiration when those beacons are lit...yes, 'hope is kindled!'. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media-cache3.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090884580_YEdXwXmM_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://media-cache3.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090884580_YEdXwXmM_f.jpg" width="450" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In this scene I also see a special view for us of the past. Many who came before us were watchmen (men and women) who lit beacons of Godliness, faith and hope. The light they carried we now see. Now it is for us to light our beacons for those around us who are lost and continue this relay, and light the way for the future. This light is His light working in His people. <i>'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' </i>(Matthew 5:16) </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Thus, the title: 'Beacons of the Past'; and the subtitle: 'Illuminating the Present, Guiding the Future' was inspired. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media-cache4.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090977645_CcLtdafE_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://media-cache4.pinterest.com/upload/207024914090977645_CcLtdafE_f.jpg" width="450" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">My basic aim of showing that h</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">istory is really His Story; that He is Sovereign over all nations, peoples, and individuals in every time in history; and that everything happens under His control and permission according to His perfect wisdom for His glory, the advancement of His Kingdom and the good of His people; has not changed. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 25px;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 25px;">Our greatest comfort in an uncertain world is to know that our Heavenly Father is also the Sovereign Lord over all creation. It gives me personally great joy and comfort when I see His hand at work, or when I see glimpses of His plan in History. History is not just about the past. It is about the present and about the future, because</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; line-height: 25px;"> </i><i style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-size: large;">'Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever'</span></i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 25px;"> (Hebrews 13:8). What God did in the past, He will do today, and will do tomorrow. This constancy gives me great strength and HOPE. Yes, it is the beacon of light in this dark world. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 25px;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 25px;">So, generally, there won't be much change in the aim of this blog, but perhaps a slightly different theme perspective subtly running through the blog as a whole. I will try to keep up the 'Hall of Faith Series' as time allows. They are bios of some of those watchmen and women who carry the light and light the beacons. But I will also be sharing on different topics and subjects as well. Some will be related directly with history, others will be fun or inspirational, and others devotional. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 25px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 25px;">So, join me on this new phase of my blogging experience.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 25px;">I'd really love to hear from my readers. It gives me great encouragement and inspiration. So, please, I'd really be blessed if you'd share your thoughts and ideas with me in the comments area and whenever I can I will try to answer them. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 25px;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 25px;">God bless,</span></span></div>
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-21379693700150670002012-04-25T09:40:00.005+10:002012-04-25T09:40:58.638+10:00This Day in History: Lest We Forget<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQL_W6I7elWK-2I_OlYewq1k_wNWPejrJdmxbI2szCqODfwluGi" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQL_W6I7elWK-2I_OlYewq1k_wNWPejrJdmxbI2szCqODfwluGi" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They shall not grow old,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">as we that are left grow old;</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Age shall not weary them, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">nor the years condemn. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">At the going down of the sun </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">and in the morning</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We Will Remember Them. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>The Ode</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Lest We Forget.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Today is ANZAC day. It's a day when we remember the landings in 1915 of Australian and New Zealand troops on the beaches of Gallipoli. We also remember the sacrifices of all the troops who fought to defend our freedom in the many conflicts since that day. It's also a time to remember our troops who are still serving overseas and their families. They're willingly putting their lives daily on the lines for us to be safe and free. Yes, there is no greater love than a friend lay down his life for his friends (see John 15:13). </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Find out more of the history of the ANZACs in WWI from the <a href="http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1.asp" target="_blank">Australian War Memorial website</a> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQTDkmQ71RK-0ICkWYWiv0M50ppTascoh5siwg5kfutJwo-AYTdxmnv_jZBUZr5PUbtT11ZsuFed3LgZYO1hNkp4SsGOENVrvv4OL5aZisK4vsgMJF0zLj5-2Bmhu4MX81wGi4AP5kCf4/s1600/AWM-Simpson+donkey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQTDkmQ71RK-0ICkWYWiv0M50ppTascoh5siwg5kfutJwo-AYTdxmnv_jZBUZr5PUbtT11ZsuFed3LgZYO1hNkp4SsGOENVrvv4OL5aZisK4vsgMJF0zLj5-2Bmhu4MX81wGi4AP5kCf4/s400/AWM-Simpson+donkey.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Simpson and his donkey<br /><a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kirkpatrick-john-simpson-6975" target="_blank">Read the story behind this sculpture</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">At this time we can also remember the greatest sacrifice in the world that was done for us - how our Saviour gave His life to purchase our eternal freedom from sin and hell and gave us the gift of eternal life with Him. Thank you Lord Jesus for this sacrifice...Your love teaches us what love and sacrifice really are. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There is one hymn I'd like to share with you today: 'Abide with me' </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This hymn became a great comfort to many during WWI both to our troops on the battlefields and to those back home. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/jmiqAOw3YhU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
sung by Hayley Westenra</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">God Bless, </span></div>
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-49367293333070058252012-04-15T01:08:00.001+10:002012-04-15T01:08:12.460+10:00This Day in History: Titanic (100th Anniversary)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Let us take a moment to reflect upon this horrific historical event that still haunts and fascinates us to this day because of the sheer scale of the tragedy. There are always lessons for us to learn. </span></div>
<br /><a href="http://cruiselinehistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/marschall_-_rms_titanic_-_passage_to_eternity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="420" src="http://cruiselinehistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/marschall_-_rms_titanic_-_passage_to_eternity.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">The <i>Titanic</i>! So majestic on the waters! 'Unsinkable' they called her.</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://omgghana.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Titanic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://omgghana.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Titanic.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>'Unsinkable' they still call her</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lzroN2vry2DK5aLpqaTZeDnvkJDij2o5MShbxV6LwcoD6C_eeUiTnr9kuQyT1WUPag4DBeosjnuZ8hX8ttIYuC2zGk2rrgqdBnnM7Avh3jZ0h4APJ4gEOSb5KqrdpFiwoDoZpD4jGj4/s1600/Making-of-TITANIC-ship-30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lzroN2vry2DK5aLpqaTZeDnvkJDij2o5MShbxV6LwcoD6C_eeUiTnr9kuQyT1WUPag4DBeosjnuZ8hX8ttIYuC2zGk2rrgqdBnnM7Avh3jZ0h4APJ4gEOSb5KqrdpFiwoDoZpD4jGj4/s640/Making-of-TITANIC-ship-30.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>'Unsinkable' they said??</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.free-wall-paper.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Titanic_www-free-wall-paper-com_1280x10243-500x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="http://www.free-wall-paper.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Titanic_www-free-wall-paper-com_1280x10243-500x400.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">No! I'm grieved to say that, like any ship on this earth, it is 'Sinkable!' - If only they had realised this <i>sooner</i>!</span></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One particular verse has been going through my mind that I think sums it all up. It is 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">'Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.'</span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">O Lord, give us the grace to always remember our frailty and put our trust in You <i>alone</i>! </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Amen.</span></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-12528354875103993302012-04-08T12:49:00.001+10:002012-04-08T12:49:07.750+10:00Christ is Risen! Risen Indeed!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<center style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/HxATO1YrNaQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<h1>
Was it a Morning Like This?</h1>
</center><div style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">By Sandi Patty</span></i></div>
<pre style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Was it a morning like this
When the Son still hid from Jerusalem?
And Mary rose from her bed
To tend the Lord She thought was dead
What is a morning like this,
When Mary walked down from Jerusalem?
And two angels stood at the tomb,
Bearers of news she would hear soon.
Did the grass sing?
Did the earth rejoice
To feel you again?
Over and over like a
Trumpet underground,
Did the earth seem to pound:
“He is risen”
over and over
in a never ending round
“He is risen, alleluia, alleluia!”
Was it an morning like this,
When Peter and John from Jerusalem?
And as they raced for the tomb,
Beneath their feet was there a tune?
Was it a morning like this,
When my Lord looked out
On Jerusalem?
He is risen, alleluia, alleluia.</span></pre>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-60962752156691321442012-04-06T10:16:00.000+10:002012-04-06T10:27:31.477+10:00An Unexpected, Life-changing Encounter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.philadelphiacathedral.org/files/423/file_4ba3ec4e2f605/LAMB_OF_GOD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://www.philadelphiacathedral.org/files/423/file_4ba3ec4e2f605/LAMB_OF_GOD.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Good Friday is a very special day. A day when we remember the heavy price our Saviour, Jesus Christ the Son of God, paid for our salvation and redemption. His precious blood is what cleanses us from our sins and gives us eternal life. Without the events of that day all humanity would be in hopeless misery and darkness now and for all eternity. Neither you nor I would be able to know God, love Him, and approach Him. Thank you, Lord for the cross and the great price you paid for my salvation.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, on that Friday long ago, an suspecting man was thrust into the greatest event in history. It was then that He encountered Someone who changed his life forever.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">The Gospels tell briefly of that encounter, but in it one could read a lifetime story. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'<i>And they compel one Simon of Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross.' </i>(Mark 15:21)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus.'</i> (Luke 23:26)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In his book, <i>The First Easter,</i> Peter Marshall imagines the scene of the procession to Calvary and that special encounter between Christ and Simon of Cyrene. </span><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was an ugly situation as the procession went slowly along this way that will for ever be known as the Via Dolorosa [way of suffering or sorrow]. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile - Simon of Cyrene was approaching the city gate.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">He had just arrived in Judea, and was about to enter the Holy City, as a pilgrim for the festival.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">He had spent the night in some village just outside, and, rising early in the morning, had bathed and dressed himself carefully...with a tingling excitement because soon he would be in Jerusalem. The wonder of Jerusalem, that exiles had described, he would now see with his own eyes...the sounds of the Holy City...he would hear with his own ears. Yet He tried to keep calm, and as he set out on the short walk that lay between him and the city, he was very thoughtful. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuALbw9nvGHRFtB04NUsG6m1oYMZiATbSyjQ6MJNtZfjPXHRLy5w8eawW8OpSb_TdFUwno8cwjfK9WQxnZ8wi9p7p_7zhjxeuCySyG5woRxwD8LBMw_MsrTIn0KswXFtquJreYi-hgqrA/s1600/Simon+of+Cyrene1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuALbw9nvGHRFtB04NUsG6m1oYMZiATbSyjQ6MJNtZfjPXHRLy5w8eawW8OpSb_TdFUwno8cwjfK9WQxnZ8wi9p7p_7zhjxeuCySyG5woRxwD8LBMw_MsrTIn0KswXFtquJreYi-hgqrA/s400/Simon+of+Cyrene1.jpg" width="307" /></a></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">He walked along the winding path that sometimes ran through the fields...</span><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes along narrow roads between hedges where there was the fragrance of pomegranate trees and honeysuckle...</span><span style="font-size: large;"> Sometimes along the torturous course of the dried-up river bed where the earth was cracked with the heat of the sun.</span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Sometimes it wound up the jagged hillside to twist down among the giant boulders and huge rocks behind which many a robber might hide. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He walked along beside the tall rushes, where he frightened conveys of birds that flew wheeling, diving...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">And he walked through the divided crops, ripening in the sunshine.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">He could hear the sheep bleating on the inhospitable hillside, while the morning sun climbed higher and chased away the mists that lay in the hollows, trailing down into the ravines like tulle scarves. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">As he walked along, he was thinking of the temple and its glories, the history of his people and the worship of his fathers...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Already he could see ahead of him the domes of the temple gleaming gold in the sunshine, could hear the pigeons that had their nest in the cupolas and gables, and he thought of his own city looking from her height over the blue waters of the Mediterranean.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Then as he neared the city gate he began to hear shouting that grew louder and louder.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">There seemed to Simon to be a sort of chant running through the noise...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> a refrain that men's voices made clearer and clear er until he thought he could recognise the word</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> "Crucify</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">crucify</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> crucify...."</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">They met right at the city gate ... Simon of Cyrene and the crowd. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He found that the procession was headed by some Roman soldiers; he would recognise them anywhere...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> the insignia on their shields...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> and their uniforms...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">He could tell a legionnaire when he saw one.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">He had little time to gather impressions, and as for asking questions, that was impossible. He could not make himself heard in all the rabble.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The noise and confusion with its sinister and malice made Simon shudder. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Simon was aware of two moving walls of Roman steel. There was something strange about it all but, before he could understand it, Simon was caught up in it - sucked into the procession, and swept out through the gate again.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Simon was excited, afraid...</span><span style="font-size: large;">He was puzzled and ill at ease. </span><span style="font-size: large;">He scanned face after face quickly, looking for some light of pity...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> of friendliness,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> of welcome...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">But he found none.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">He felt the drama of the situation, the cruelty of it...And its horror crept over him like a clammy mist - and he shivered. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">He was captured by the procession, stumbling along, tightly wedged in the very heart of the crowd.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Then he noticed that there were three men who staggered under the weight of crosses of rough, heavy wood on which these unfortunates were going to die. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Each man was bent beneath the burden he carried, and perspiration moistened his drawn face.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">One of them was strangely appealing, His face was arresting. Simon felt his gaze returning again and again to that one face. He noticed that blood was trickling down from wounds in the brow.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">On His face there was a twig of long-thorned brier, twisted around in the shape of a crown and pushed down cruelly on His head. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Simon watched with beating heart as they shuffled along, fascinated by the look in those eyes.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">He could see nothing else. Everything was forgotten, even why he had come to Jerusalem. </span><span style="font-size: large;">This public execution had driven everything else from his mind.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Forgotten for the moment were the temple and its services,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> messages he brought from friends far away...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"> things he had been asked to get...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Everything was forgotten as he watched this Man carrying the cross. </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">And then <i>He </i>looked up! His eyes almost blinded by the blood that trickled down from under that grotesque crown that was on his head...</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">Why didn't somebody wipe His eyes?</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">And as Simon looked at Him, He looked at Simon...</span><span style="font-size: large;">And the eyes of the two ... met!</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><span style="font-size: large;">How did Christ know what was in Simon's heart?</span><span style="font-size: large;">What was it that made Him smile, a slow, sad smile that seemed to still Simon's wildly beating heart and give him courage? </span></blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnhbiDGANOgZo1RDLlwTekbt3SkqdYylaVXralgKjutfQtE0KkRoDZl5dv13b_dbqKFCiR_KpqUK2DHKelWz6hP2XhkZ6oGNF2JRwUYa4RnZRAM1T4q181Gb_aC8cJqn_uzXccsnr9QcYC/s400/Simon800wH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnhbiDGANOgZo1RDLlwTekbt3SkqdYylaVXralgKjutfQtE0KkRoDZl5dv13b_dbqKFCiR_KpqUK2DHKelWz6hP2XhkZ6oGNF2JRwUYa4RnZRAM1T4q181Gb_aC8cJqn_uzXccsnr9QcYC/s640/Simon800wH.jpg" width="640" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The look that passed between them Simon never forgot as long as he lived, <i><b>for no man can look at Jesus of Nazareth and remain the same</b>.</i> (my emphasis)</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">As these two looked at each other, the Man with the cross stumbled, and the soldiers, moved more by impatience than pity, seeing that the Nazarene was almost too exhausted to carry the cross any further, laid hands on Simon and conscripted him to carry it.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was the nearest man. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">He was strong.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">His shoulders were broad!</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Simon's heart almost stopped beating; he tried to speak, but no words came.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">A few minutes before, he had been a lonely pilgrim quietly approaching the Holy City. And now, there he was in the midst of a procession of howling men and women, walking between two moving walls of Roman steel, and carrying on his shoulder a cross on which someone was going to die!</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://yearintheoffice.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/simon-of-cyrene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="419" src="http://yearintheoffice.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/simon-of-cyrene.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">The look of gratitude and love that flashed from the eyes of Jesus as Simon lifted the load from those tired, bleeding shoulders did something to the man from Cyrene, and <b><i>in an instant life was changed</i>. </b>(my emphasis)</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Simon never could explain it afterwards - how it happened! </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">There are moments of spiritual insight that defy the limits of syntax and grammar. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There are some things too deep for words.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>But all at once he saw the meaning of pain...</i></b></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> understood the significance of suffering...</i></b></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>The meaning of prayer was unveiled...</i></b></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> and the message of the Scriptures.</i></b></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>He saw prophecy take form and live before him. </i></b></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>He remembered words of the psalmist and the prophets of old, words that until now had been without sense of meaning, but now... he saw ... and understood.</i> </b>(my emphasis)</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, the one who meets Jesus of Nazareth will never be the same again. No-one can remain neutral. If you haven't yet had such a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, ask Him now. He is near and always ready to heal and forgive. If you have had that wonderful encounter already, take a moment to thank Him for His sacrifice and ask Him to refresh that relationship. This is what I pray. Amen.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God Bless, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">_________________</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reference</u>: </b></span><br />
Peter Marshall, <i>The First Easter,</i> (ed.) Catherine Marshall, London: Hodder and Staughton, 1959, pp. 54-59 </div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-24690905540132118462012-04-05T15:06:00.000+10:002012-04-05T15:06:43.997+10:00Via Dolorosa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ak0.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/315049/preview/stock-footage-three-cross-on-calvary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://ak0.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/315049/preview/stock-footage-three-cross-on-calvary.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Be blessed by this lovely song about the passion of our Saviour. Sung by Sandi Patti. It is one of my favourite Easter songs. Sometimes I think, it would feel like Passion Week or Good Friday without hearing it.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/7asEdmZsSPo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">VERSE 1:</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Down the Vía Dolorosa in Jerusalem that day</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">The soldiers tried to clear the narrow street</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">But the crowd pressed in to see</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">The Man condemned to die on Calvary</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">VERSE 2:</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">He was bleeding from a beating, there were stripes upon His back</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">And He wore a crown of thorns upon His head</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">And He bore with every step</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">The scorn of those who cried out for His death</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">CHORUS:</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Down the Vía Dolorosa called the way of suffering</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Like a lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King,</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">But He chose to walk that road out of</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">His love for you and me.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Down the Via Dolorosa, all the way to Calvary.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">VERSE 1 (Spanish):</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Por la Vía Dolorosa, triste día en Jerusalén</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Los soldados le abrían paso a Jesús.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Más la gente se acercaba,</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Para ver al que llevaba aquella cruz.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">CHORUS (Spanish):</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Por la Vía Dolorosa, que es la via del dolor</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Como oveja vino Cristo, Rey y Señor,</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Y fue Él quien quiso ir por su amor por ti y por mí.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Por la Vía Dolorosa al Calvario y a morir.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">BRIDGE:</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">The blood that would cleanse the souls of all men</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Made its way through the heart of Jerusalem.</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">CHORUS:</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Down the Vía Dolorosa called the way of suffering</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Like a lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">But He chose to walk that road out of His love for you and me</span><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Down the Vía Dolorosa, all the way to Calvary.</span></span></span>
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">God bless, </span></span></div>
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-30308976837565256772012-04-01T01:25:00.001+10:002012-04-09T12:03:41.907+10:00Tagging Fun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/turnertomonet/Images/400/48469.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="362" src="http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/turnertomonet/Images/400/48469.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;"><tbody>
<tr><td><img border="0" height="10" src="http://nga.gov.au/Common/Graphics/Shim.gif" width="100" /></td></tr>
<tr style="padding-bottom: 10px;" valign="top"><td style="font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko, Australian Alps<br />
via <i><a href="http://nga.gov.au/exhibition/turnertomonet/Detail.cfm?IRN=48469" target="_blank">Turner to Monet: The Triumph of Landscape</a></i> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Something is going on in Blogger Land. Tagging seems to be the fashion these last few days. I've never done this before, but I've had the honour (or shall say fate:), lol) to be tagged by <a href="http://joy-live4jesus.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/little-fun-tagging.html" target="_blank">Joy</a>. So, I've decided to try it out, too. Enjoy! </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;">
<div>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here are the rules.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">1. Post these rules</span></div>
</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">2. Post 11 random things about yourself (optional)</span></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">3. Answer the questions the tagger posted for you in their post.</span></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px; text-align: justify;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.</span></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">5. Go to their blog and tell them that they have been tagged.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="line-height: 25px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media.web.britannica.com/eb-media/68/74868-004-0A86EF43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="380" src="http://media.web.britannica.com/eb-media/68/74868-004-0A86EF43.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Glass House Mountains - Southeastern Queensland, Australia<br />
via <i>Google Images</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><b>11 Random things about myself</b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">Mmmm...that's often hard to do, but I'll try my best...here I go:)</span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">1. I love listening to audio theatre drama - they give real 'scope for the imagination' and are fun and very encouraging. </span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">2. I really love the music soundtracks for the <i>Narnia </i>movies by Harry Gregson-Williams, <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> by Howard Shore, and <i>The Nativity Story</i> by Mychael Danna - they're just so awe-inspiring.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">3. I love singing...I'd really love to get professional training someday, if the Lord wills. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">4. I have a major problem with procrastinating when I'm not passionate about doing something...like finishing assignments:(</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">5. When I was still in school, I almost never managed to write an essay (with maximum 1000 words or so) in less than two weeks minimum! Now I can write a university essay (up to 2500 words or more), with full proper research and referencing in less than a week, sometimes in a couple of days even...amazing what uni can do! It even surprised me:)</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">6. I'd love to write a historical novel someday...still not sure what it will be, though:) </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">7. Watching the movie <i><a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/cromwell.html" target="_blank">Cromwell</a> </i>excited my curiosity and set me on the exciting journey of studying history. Oliver Cromwell is certainly one of my historical heroes.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">8. I've become quite fascinated with the literary works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">9. I love Christian apologetics. I particularly love the works by contemporary Christian apologist, <a href="http://www.rzim.org/" target="_blank">Ravi Zacharias</a>. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">10. I love reading Puritan devotional books, particularly those that meditate on the Person of Christ and His work. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;">11. I love the biblical account of Joseph (Genesis). I love to meditate on his faith in all his trials and how his life was a shadow of Christ. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://chockstone.smugmug.com/photos/114412393_iao6p-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://chockstone.smugmug.com/photos/114412393_iao6p-L.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Three Sisters - The Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia<br />
via <i>Google Images</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
<div style="line-height: 20px;">
<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Joy's questions and my answers:</span></b></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>1. Who are your top <span style="background-color: white;">3 </span><span style="background-color: white;">favourite <b>classic</b> fiction authors and your top 3 favourite <b>modern </b>fiction authors? (by the word 'classic', I'm referring to authors of the past up to the mid 20th Century, and by 'modern', I'm referring to authors who wrote and lived from the 1960s and up)</span></i></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Well, that is not easy. There are so many, particularly since I prefer classic fiction than modern...mmm....</span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">My top 3 <b>classic</b> fiction authors would be: </span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">- <b>Jane Porter</b> (1700s): she wrote <i>Scottish Chiefs, </i>a historical novel about Sir William Wallace. I really love it. She wrote other historical books...They're on my reading plan:)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">- <b>J.R.R. Tolkien </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">- <b>C.S. Lewis</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>- </b>There are other very good ones: <b>John Bunyan</b>, <b>Arthur Conan Doyle </b>(Sherlock Holmes)</span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">My top 3 <b>modern</b> fiction authors would be: </span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>- Jannette Oak</b>: though not all her books. I particularly like her Acts of Faith Series. </span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">- <b>Davis Bunn</b>: co-author of Acts of Faith Series</span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">- <b>Chuck Black</b>: Knights of Arrethtrae Series particularly.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b> ***************************************</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>2. Which character in John Bunyan's immortal classic, <b>The Pilgrim's Progress</b>, do you identify with the most in their/your spiritual journey? (Christian, Faithful, or Hopeful)</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Wow. That's difficult. I'd say that there are different thing in each that I would identify strongly with. However, Christian would most likely be the most one I'd identify with the most. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">**********************************************</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>3. </i></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </b><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>In J.R.R. Tolkien's <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><b>The Lord of the Rings</b></span>, we see that Sam's and Frodo's responses to Gollum-Smeagol are different. If you were in either character's position when they had a chance of killing him, would you have done so and rid yourself of his wickedness and treachery, or would you pity him, having carried the burden of the Ring yourself, known its temptation, and shown mercy?</i></span><i style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> <span style="color: #0c0c0c;">(P.S. if you haven't watched/read</span><b style="color: #0c0c0c;"> The</b> <b style="color: #0c0c0c;">Lord of the Rings</b><span style="color: #0c0c0c;">, you can skip this question)</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">That's not easy to decide. I think I would have felt similarly to Frodo and Sam. I don't think I could kill him, but I certainly wouldn't trust him. I may want to tie him up somewhere when I feel threatened. I think I would have some pity for him...you know...'There but for the grace of God I go'. </span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">********************************************** </span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>4. Which do you enjoy more: reading a book or watching a movie?</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">To me there are just two different activities, the one does not fully compensate for the other. However, I often find that a movie helps me to 'get into' the world of the a related book. The two often go together. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">***********************************************</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>5. What is your favourite kind of music to sing, hear and play and who do you think was the greatest music composer of all time?</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I love to sing that glorify the Lord. I like traditional, classical Church music and hymns. I love <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialLibera/featured" target="_blank">Libera </a></i>boys choir very much. I also like more contemporary praise and worship that has good music and deep words of worship and praise. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I also like good traditional, classic and folk songs. Some songs in movies are also nice to sing and hear (like the <i>Sound of Music</i> for example).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It is difficult to say who is <i>the </i>greatest composer of all time, since it seems to depend mostly on the kind of music I'm in the mood of hearing at any particular time. But I have to say that Harry Gregson-Williams, Howard Shore, and Mychael Danna are some of my favourite modern composers, and for classical composers I like Bach, Handel, and Beethoven. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">******************************************* </span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>6. Which 2 books of the Bible do you tend to read from the most?</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I tend to go to the <i>Psalms</i> and the <i>Gospel of John. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>*******************************************</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>7. Is there a figure in history (outside the Bible) that you love the most? And why?</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I love the figure of <a href="http://gemsinhistory-sarah.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Oliver%20Cromwell" target="_blank">Oliver Cromwell</a>. I spent a number of year already researching and studying about him and I never fail to be amazed at his stature in the history of the Christian world and at the same time his great and deep personal faith in Jesus Christ that shaped his life and his great magnanimty, humility, and forgiveness of his enemies who were often very cruel and unjust in their judgement of him. My extensive personal research has shown me that he was very much misunderstood and wrongfully vilified both by his contemporaries and history. However, the Western world owes him a great deal. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">******************************************</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>8. Is there a book or movie that you've read/watched and you've wished something had gone differently and would like to re-write it?</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Oh dear...sorry...nothing comes to mind at present</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">******************************************</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>9. What are your 2 favourite scenes in <b>The Chronicles of Narnia </b>(taken from either the films, books or both)?</i><i style="background-color: white;">(P.S. if you haven't watched/read<b> The Chronicles of Narnia</b>, you can skip this question)</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Well, there are so many favourite scenes for me, but my dear younger sister Joy (the one who tagged me) has graciously granted me the addition of two more scenes...Lol:)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>scene 1:</b> In <i>Prince Caspian</i> movie - When Lucy meets Aslan. She asks him why he did not come roaring in to save them like he did before. He answers: 'Things never happen the same way twice dear one'. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0c0c0c;"><b>scene 2:</b> In <i>The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe</i> (in the movie) - When Aslan comes roaring into the battle </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c;">after he rises again </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c;">and finally defeats the White Witch. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>scene 3: </b>In the <i>Silver Chair</i> book - When Puddleglum says that he still believes in Aslan, even if the Lady of the Green Kurtil says that they're imagining it all. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>scene 4:</b> In the <i>Last Battle </i>book - When they finally reach Aslan's country and see him all the past characters and see Aslan. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">*******************************************</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>10. What are some of the books (fiction + non-fiction) or movies that have inspired and changed your life?</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The <i><a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/cromwell.html" target="_blank">Cromwell </a></i>movie, t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">he </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Lord of the Rings</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> movies, John Bunyan's </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Pilgrim's Progress </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">(book and movie: </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/pilgrims-progress-journey-to-heaven.html" target="_blank">Journey to Heaven</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">), Ravi Zacharias' book </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Deliver Us From Evil, </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Ravi Zacharias' sermons (videos) </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The Uniqueness of Christ in History</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> and </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Jesus Among Other Gods</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> (also a book), the story of <i>Vanya</i>, and <i>Siberian Miracle</i> (story of persecution of a whole Church congregation during the Soviet Union).</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">These are just some examples, but there are many more...too many to name here...visit '<a href="http://gemsinhistory-sarah.blogspot.com.au/p/bookshelf-2.html" target="_blank">My Bookshelf</a>' page for an idea:)</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">*******************************************</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>11. What do you love most about the place where you live?</i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><u>My Answer</u>: </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">It's in the beautiful state of Queensland. Brisbane combines the rural and the urban together very beautifully. You don't have to travel far to find rural properties, farms, and bush and then some shopping centre with all modern facilities. I love it. If you're ever here, I'd love to show you round:)</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">******************************************</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/232216924505780654_xoBr4YE5_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/232216924505780654_xoBr4YE5_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #211922; font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Lavender field in Bridestowe Estate, Tasmania, Australia. The plantation is one of the largest lavender farms in the world.<br />via <i>Pinterest</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">My Questions: </span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">1. Who is your favourite historical figure (outside the Bible)? Why?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">2. What are your favourite 2 to 4 scenes from J.R.R. Tolkien's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Lord of the Rings</i> (taken from either the movies, books, or both)? (P.S. You may skip this question if you haven't read or watched <b><i>Lord of the Rings</i></b><i>)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">3. Which character(s) do you identify most with in the <i style="font-weight: bold;">Lord of the Rings</i>(book or movie)? Why? (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">P.S. You may skip this question if you haven't read or watched </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i>Lord of the Rings</i></b><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">)</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">4. What is your favourite historical era? Why (a couple of reasons or so)? </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">- <b>Ancient</b> - B.C. (or)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">- <b>Late Antiquity </b>- Roman and Greek A.D. (or)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;">- <b>Medieval</b> - from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance in the 14th and 15th centuries (or)</span><span style="color: #0c0c0c;">- <b>Early Modern Period</b> - from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, including the Reformation (16th to 18th centuries ) (or)</span><span style="color: #0c0c0c;">- <b>Modern Period</b> - 19th to 20th centuries </span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">5. Do you have a particular historical event that you find especially amazing, intriguing, or inspiring? Why? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0c0c0c;">6. Which do you like doing more: singing (either solo or with others), listening, or playing a musical instrument? </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">7. Are there any non-fiction books that have inspired and changed your life in some way or another? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">8. Who is your favourite Biblical Character? Why? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">9. Is there a certain devotional, theological, or spiritual book that has really touched and changed your life? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">10. What is your favourite food? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">11. Is there a certain country, city, or state you'd especially love to visit someday? </span><br />
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/157626055677996476_1QZt8VG5_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://media-cache1.pinterest.com/upload/157626055677996476_1QZt8VG5_f.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bellingen, NSW - Very close to Coffs Harbour where I lived with my family some years ago<br />
via <i>Pinterest</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I Tag...</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Danielle<i> </i>from <i><a href="http://daniellecarey.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Danielle Carey</a></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Rachel from <i><a href="http://covenantmaiden.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Covenant Maiden</a></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Emily Grace from <i><a href="http://emilygrace-blog.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">A Life Worthy of the Lord </a></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Carra from <i><a href="http://carra4jesus.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">A Life in the Wilderness</a></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Shaz from <i><a href="http://calligraphycards-shazinoz.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Calligraphy Cards - Shaz in Oz.</a></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="color: #0c0c0c; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 25px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0c0c0c;">Well, unfortunately, my younger sister Joy, has already tagged some whom I would've loved to tag, but</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; line-height: 20px;"> if ANYONE would like to participate in this Fun Tagging, I'm tagging you too... so please feel free to join! :)</i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: 'century gothic', georgia, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 25px;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c0c0c; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-85804416870360705852012-03-17T22:25:00.002+10:002012-03-17T23:14:56.882+10:00Hall of Faith Series: Men of Faith - St. Patrick<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s1600/hallway+with+busts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s320/hallway+with+busts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">*****************************************</span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Since it is St. Patrick's Day today, I decided 'St. Patrick' would be my character for this week's 'Hall of Faith Series'. If you ask many people nowadays who St. Patrick was, they would most likely not know very much other than the myths and legends that have been weaved and weaved around him for countless generations. These legends have obscured the man behind those legends and made most of us (yes, even us Christians) forget why he became such a legend in the first place.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dG_Dpx7cgl1n5vpgLmFbNe5nLPEAP47Wq9XGaWIcvH8eXsBTHv0IRjvRDxen3dfFpX43T64OmXSiivQZrlxYwoHbrt5FLi-4Zdej6SvgDfpfGmqFARFhwDV1dS1bgmxjscrS9E9UolE/s1600/St.+Patrick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dG_Dpx7cgl1n5vpgLmFbNe5nLPEAP47Wq9XGaWIcvH8eXsBTHv0IRjvRDxen3dfFpX43T64OmXSiivQZrlxYwoHbrt5FLi-4Zdej6SvgDfpfGmqFARFhwDV1dS1bgmxjscrS9E9UolE/s1600/St.+Patrick.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Patrick (<i>c. A.D. 386-461</i>) wrote very little about himself and no one during his lifetime wrote about him either. However, we are fortunately left with a few of his writings that tells us something of the true Patrick, a holy and humble man of great faith in God with a truly apostolic mission. The most important document is the <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/holidays/stpatricks/features/confession.html" target="_blank"><i>Confessio</i> or <i>Confession</i></a> (*I highly recommend reading it*). In it he sketches his life story - h</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">ow he was captured by Irish slave traders, how he called on the Lord in the day of his distress and was saved, how he miraculously escaped his captivity and returned to his home in Briton, then how he was called back to the people who had
enslaved him in order to preach the Gospel to them, and how he obeyed God's call despite the danger and </span><span style="line-height: 27px;">difficulties</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">. </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Paul Gallico said this about Patrick in his <i>A Steadfast Man: A Life of St. Patrick,</i></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">He [Patrick] stands forth as a wonderfully human being, a man with almost all man's failings, yet touched by the divine. The testimony of his own hand exposes one who is not ashamed to admit that he owed everything to God, and that, had it not been for Him, he, Patrick, would have been other than he was.</span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Out of the pages of the <i>Confessio</i> arises the figure of a man of indomitable purpose and compelling spiritual power, who, as [Bishop] Secundinus [probably a nephew of Patrick] wrote in his hymn, 'in sincerity of heart had confidence in God'.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is this sincerity, faith, and confidence - the utter subjection of himself to God - that gave Patrick his stature and account for the success that has placed him amongst the saints of the ages. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Patrick's trust in God breathes from every page and from every line he wrote. It replaced a confidence that he never felt in himself, for Patrick entertained no illusions as to his initial abilities and talents. But God made everything possible to him, helped him to overcome every obstacle, physical or spiritual, with which his adventurous life was studded. he walked armoured in this faith and nothing could touch him; not the swords and spears of his enemies, or the occasional envy or spite of his friends. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was this love for God and his dedication to the life, the work and the word of Christ that gave Patrick his steadfast and unchanging nature. God was Patrick's catalyst who fused and tempered his character. From the time that the boy Patrick discovered Him on the freezing slopes of Mount Slemish, there was not a thought or action that was not first funneled through God. Thus the Saint's line of action ran as straight as an arrow, undeviating, unwavering. It was impossible for him to act other than in concert with his God, who had called him to serve. He had the word of that God and that Christ, spoken through the Scriptures and the Gospels; he lived by them to the utmost of his ability and he asked of those about him and those whom he preached and converted to try to do likewise. And you will see, glittering from some of his paragraphs. like jewels, his joy when he succeeded. (p. 124-125)</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/KellsFol007vMadonnaChild_V2.jpg/220px-KellsFol007vMadonnaChild_V2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/KellsFol007vMadonnaChild_V2.jpg/220px-KellsFol007vMadonnaChild_V2.jpg" width="244" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Patrick's faith in God and his obedience to His call to preach to the heathen Irish when nobody else thought it possible, changed the destiny and faith of a whole nation and influenced the development of Christian Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. The monasteries that dotted the Irish landscape became a bastion of learning during the troubled times of the barbarian invasions in Europe. The beautiful calligraphic manuscripts created and preserved in those monasteries awe us all, the <i>Book of Kells</i>, being a chief example. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There is so much more to learn about Patrick, his faith and his work for the Lord, maybe I'll leave that for another post for now. Until then, however, I highly recommend watching the docu-drama <i><a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/st-patrick.html" target="_blank">Patrick</a></i> (narrated by Liam Neeson), which tells Patrick's story really well and it's very encouraging. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/224/465522925_a2ac112a31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/224/465522925_a2ac112a31.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I'd like to end with this: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="arttitle" style="background-color: white; color: #669966; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15pt; font-weight: bold; text-align: -webkit-auto;">A Poem by St.Patrick</span><br />
<span class="artbyline" style="background-color: white; color: #669966; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Written by St. Patrick in 377 A.D.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-auto;"></span><br />
<div class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Lorica</b><br />
I arise today<br />
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,<br />
Through a belief in the Threeness,<br />
Through confession of the Oneness<br />
Of the Creator of creation.</div>
<blockquote class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
I arise today<br />
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,<br />
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,<br />
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,<br />
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.</blockquote>
<div class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
I arise today<br />
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,<br />
In obedience of angels,<br />
In service of archangels,<br />
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,<br />
In the prayers of patriarchs,<br />
In preachings of the apostles,<br />
In faiths of confessors,<br />
In innocence of virgins,<br />
In deeds of righteous men.</div>
<blockquote class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
I arise today<br />
Through the strength of heaven;<br />
Light of the sun,<br />
Splendor of fire,<br />
Speed of lightning,<br />
Swiftness of the wind,<br />
Depth of the sea,<br />
Stability of the earth,<br />
Firmness of the rock.</blockquote>
<div class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
I arise today<br />
Through God's strength to pilot me;<br />
God's might to uphold me,<br />
God's wisdom to guide me,<br />
God's eye to look before me,<br />
God's ear to hear me,<br />
God's word to speak for me,<br />
God's hand to guard me,<br />
God's way to lie before me,<br />
God's shield to protect me,<br />
God's hosts to save me<br />
From snares of the devil,<br />
From temptations of vices,<br />
From every one who desires me ill,<br />
Afar and anear,<br />
Alone or in a multitude.</div>
<blockquote class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
I summon today all these powers between me and evil,<br />
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,<br />
Against incantations of false prophets,<br />
Against black laws of pagandom,<br />
Against false laws of heretics,<br />
Against craft of idolatry,<br />
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,<br />
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.<br />
Christ shield me today<br />
Against poison, against burning,<br />
Against drowning, against wounding,<br />
So that reward may come to me in abundance.</blockquote>
<div class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,<br />
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,<br />
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,<br />
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,<br />
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,<br />
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,<br />
Christ in the eye that sees me,<br />
Christ in the ear that hears me.</div>
<blockquote class="arttext" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
I arise today<br />
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,<br />
Through a belief in the Threeness,<br />
Through a confession of the Oneness<br />
Of the Creator of creation.<span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify;"> </span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God Bless, </span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: purple; font-size: x-large;">Sarah</span></i><br />
_____________________________<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>References and Further Reading:</u> </span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">- St. Patrick, <i>Confession</i> (available online at </span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/patrick/confession.ii.html">http://www.ccel.org/ccel/patrick/confession.ii.html</a> )</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>- <a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/st-patrick.html" target="_blank">Patrick</a></i> Docu-Drama</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">- Paul Gallico, <i>The Steadfast Man: A Life of St. Patrick</i>, London: Michael Joseph, 1958.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">- Mary Wilson, <i>Builders and Destroyers</i>,<i> God's Hand in History A.D. 300-700</i>, Book IV, London: Blandford Press, 1968, pp. 60-8</span></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-39757724926512710132012-03-10T21:59:00.003+10:002012-03-10T22:14:01.296+10:00Letter in a Wallet and God's Amazing Providence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MI_zLIfc9vRxnMo6FcRZ3fwETelXlJ4KCwTy2tA91iARxF5HOBbmG-fcUk4P8MgmO4dzlmlyc3Hax2U6try0i0pcAOJHfdYvFmj0Y17q8HciUwSMIAjSAlWzKB7tipgn06egnDukHPM/s1600/stock-photo-3164216-old-letter-pen+edited3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7MI_zLIfc9vRxnMo6FcRZ3fwETelXlJ4KCwTy2tA91iARxF5HOBbmG-fcUk4P8MgmO4dzlmlyc3Hax2U6try0i0pcAOJHfdYvFmj0Y17q8HciUwSMIAjSAlWzKB7tipgn06egnDukHPM/s400/stock-photo-3164216-old-letter-pen+edited3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Today I've decided to share something that I'm also sharing on <i><a href="http://noegarevagirl.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/letter-in-wallet-and-gods-amazing.html" target="_blank">Not An Average Girl</a></i>. I came across an amazing and touching story in the really good book, <i>The Grand Weaver</i> by Ravi Zacharias. He found that story, 'Letter in the Wallet' by Arnold Fine, in the September 1980 issue of the <i>Reader's Digest.</i></span><i style="font-size: x-large;"> </i><span style="font-size: large;">Here is Zacharias' retelling of it and I hope it amazes and encourages you as it did to me. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">[Arnold] Fine tells how one bitterly cold day he stumbled upon a wallet on the street. It had just three dollars in it and a crumpled-up letter that obviously had been carried around for many years. The letter was dated sixty years earlier and began, "Dear Michael". The beautifully written, sadly worded letter ended a romance because of a parent's demands. The last line promised, "I will always love you, Michael," and was signed, "Yours, Hannah."</span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-k5VyaLYN6uESuvWd0t0iuNuaU52UPqMOuyJkcVcZ0fpc7eXs_pZyUa5gfl87oMKWXCrixFT70tnIWyuV0JduPbdim987XbVCQw1JFp7Rc1Q7UCB3d9UMen9M5gcfz02GcbrVChZmp2c/s1600/picMainTall-walletLostGround+edited2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-k5VyaLYN6uESuvWd0t0iuNuaU52UPqMOuyJkcVcZ0fpc7eXs_pZyUa5gfl87oMKWXCrixFT70tnIWyuV0JduPbdim987XbVCQw1JFp7Rc1Q7UCB3d9UMen9M5gcfz02GcbrVChZmp2c/s400/picMainTall-walletLostGround+edited2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Fine decided to try to track down the owner of the wallet. Using Hannah's address, still legible on the letter, he finally retrieved a telephone number. But when he called it, he was disappointed (though not surprised) to learn that Hannah and her family had long ago moved out of the house. The person on the other end of the line, however, knew the name of the nursing home to which Hannah's mother had gone. So Fine called the nursing home and learned that Hannah's mother was no longer living. When he told them what he he was trying to do, however, they gave him the address and telephone number they had on file for Hannah. He called the number and found out that Hannah herself now lived in a nursing home. Fine asked for the name of the home and found the phone number. Soon he was able to confirm that, yes, Hannah was a resident there. As soon as he could, Fine decided to visit the nursing home and try to talk with Hannah.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The director met him at the door and told him that Hannah was watching television on the third floor. An escort quickly took Fine there and then left. Fine introduced himself to Hannah and explained how he had found a letter in a wallet. He showed her the letter and asked if she was the one who had written it. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Yes," Hannah replied, "I sent this letter to Michael because I was only sixteen and my mother wouldn't let us see each other anymore. He was very handsome, you know, like Sean Connery." Fine could see both the twinkle in her eye and the joy on her face that spoke of her love for Michael. "yes, Michael Goldstein was his name. If you find him, tell him that I think of him often and never did marry anyone. No one ever matched up to him," she declared, discreetly brushing tears from her eyes. Fine thanked her for her time and left. </span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">As Mr. Fine was leaving the home, the security guard at the door asked him about his visit. He told the story and said, "At least I was able to get the last name from her. His name is Michael Goldstein."</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Goldstein?" repeated the guard. "There is a Mike Goldstein who lives here on the eighth floor." Fine turned around and went back inside, this time to the eighth floor, where he asked for Michael Goldstein. When directed to an elderly gentleman, he asked the man, "Have you lost your wallet?"</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Oh, yes, I lost it when I was out for a walk the other day," Michael answered. </span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Fine handed him the wallet and asked if it was his. Michael was delighted to see it again and, full of gratitude to the finder, proceeded to thank him for returning it when Fine interrupted him.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"I have something to tell you," Fine admitted. "I read the letter in your wallet." </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Caught off guard, Michael paused for a moment and then asked, "You read the letter?" </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Yes, sir, and I have further news for you," Fine continued. "I think I know where Hannah is." </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Michael grew pale. "you know where she is? How is she?" </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"She's fine, and just as pretty as when you knew her." </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Could you tell me where she is? I'd love to call her. You know, when that letter came to me, my life ended. I've never gotten married. I never stopped loving her." </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Come with me," said Fine. He took Michael by the elbow and led him to the elevator and down to the third floor. By this time, the director of the building had rejoined them. They came to Hannah's room. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Hannah," the director whispered, gesturing toward Michael, "Do you know this man?"</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">She adjusted her glasses and looked at the man as she searched her memory bank. Then with a choked voice, Michael spoke up. "Hannah, it's Michael." She stood, as he walked over to her. They embraced and held on to each other for as long as they could stay steady on their feet. They sat down, holding hands, and between their tears they filled in the story of the long years that had passed. Feeling as though they had intruded on a sacred moment, Mr. Fine and the director slowly slipped away to leave the two alone to enjoy their reunion. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Three weeks later, Arnold Fine received an invitation to attend the wedding of Hannah, seventy-six years of age, and Michael, seventy-eight. Fine closed his story by saying, "How good the work of the Lord is." </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
Ravi Zacharias, <i>The Grand Weaver</i>, Zondervan, 2007, p.111-113 </blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvHVY0bunam76iBoRVON5ApA0QL0Z7h4ISSXE9aBaZ2kMrEh0E-c8Iz1jncmoXHMoQpIIJ41tZQkeQZg-PYIALn-jW_8uTjQc9-2V3eFIMHfT9xDz5ctABy-cnpnwEd1Bz9ygmMao1F4/s1600/elderly-couple-holding-hands-pic-getty-images-299128103+edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnvHVY0bunam76iBoRVON5ApA0QL0Z7h4ISSXE9aBaZ2kMrEh0E-c8Iz1jncmoXHMoQpIIJ41tZQkeQZg-PYIALn-jW_8uTjQc9-2V3eFIMHfT9xDz5ctABy-cnpnwEd1Bz9ygmMao1F4/s400/elderly-couple-holding-hands-pic-getty-images-299128103+edited.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">What a story! It's got many deep lessons. The greatest one, of course, is God's sovereignty and providence. It was indeed a match made in heaven. He works the little threads of our lives and weaves it to His will. While it is being weaved, it is often difficult to discern the pattern, but God knows and He works everything beautifully and sweetly. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ravi Zacharias also points to the faithfulness of Hannah and Michael to their love to each other. Hannah loved Michael faithfully but chose to honour her parent's wishes, too. Michael also loved her and honoured her desire to please her parents. God honoured that and gave them a sweet and really heavenly romantic reunion, through Arnold Fine who was willing to trouble himself to learn the story. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">God is good and faithful. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-5895453074222452782012-03-03T22:37:00.000+10:002012-03-03T22:39:22.676+10:00Hall of Faith Series: Abraham and Sarah (Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-19)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s1600/hallway+with+busts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s320/hallway+with+busts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, it's time I did another 'Hall of Faith Series' post. It's been a while, hasn't it? But, here I go now!</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Today's Hall of Faith characters</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">are Abraham and Sarah. They are indeed one of my favourites. However, I cannot </span><span style="font-size: large;">adequately convey by a long shot the faith of these great characters, considering that the Bible places them as the father and mother of the faithful. Probably, that's why I've delayed so long in writing this post. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">They were not without failings and weaknesses, of course. The Bible records several of these. However, in spite of this, God's grace was made truly manifest in them, with everlastingly glorious consequences in their lives and history. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In Hebrews' 'Hall of Faith' list, it says this about Abraham: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing wither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.' </i>(Hebrews 11:8-10)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">I always find these words amazing and challenging for me. God gave Abraham a command and a promise. With this, Abraham had a drastic and life-changing choice to make - one that would change history forever. One was a life of ease in a familiar and constant world with all his relatives and friends around him, but out of God's will, command and promises. The other was a life of hardship, weariness, and perhaps, hardest of all, loneliness away from his relatives and friends. To top it all, it was a life of total uncertainty, humanly speaking - no securities. God told him to go, but did not tell him where to. However, with this choice, came a life with God. What did Abraham choose? He chose to obey God and he did go. He believed God. He trusted His word, His promises. He chose the harder life - <i>'not knowing wither he went'. </i>But He now knew the Guide and that was all that mattered for him. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I remember once hearing a reflection from someone about this. That person observed how his little kids reacted to being taken around in the car without having any idea of what was going on or where they were being taken. Sometimes they would be placed in and out of the car while sleeping. They would go without a question or struggle. The only thing the children were concerned about was to be with their parents. They trusted their parents and knew that as long as they were around, it did not matter where they were. That is what our faith in God should be like. Trusting and child-like. That is what Abraham had.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">When the Lord led him to Canaan and gave it all to him as an inheritance for his descendants, he immediately knew where his true country was. He knew by faith that this was only a shadow and what country really mattered was the eternal heavenly city, built by God. That is where he laid his treasure. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Hebrews continues by saying that, </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promise offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from</i><i> whence also he received him in a figure.' </i>(Hebrews 11: 17-19)</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Again, this passage just amazes me. It was the hardest thing that God ever called Abraham to do. After God had promised and given the son. After waiting for him for so long, God asked Abraham to offer him up. I find this to be difficult in my life. I guess it is difficult for all of us. Sometimes, it is a dream or vision or hope. Perhaps you know in your heart that it is from God, but then God comes and seems to ask for it back. You question and wonder. What Abraham did was to surrender, but he did not have to surrender his faith in God. What mattered to him was not so much in what way God was to fulfill his promise, but that He would. He knew God and trusted Him. No wonder he was called 'friend of God'! Oh God, give me - us this faith. There is always a resurrection. I believe this. God was very pleased with this obedience of faith, and 'resurrected' his son in a manner of speaking. In it, I believe, he saw the Lamb of God, too. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7RJtJtZxbXtlcgvbQl9JkB0H_aZhOJIb1r6Bc2FYW2_hry-iEBQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT7RJtJtZxbXtlcgvbQl9JkB0H_aZhOJIb1r6Bc2FYW2_hry-iEBQ" width="322" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This is not all. Hebrews continues, saying:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when shet was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many of the stars</i><i> of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.' </i>(Hebrews 11:11-12)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJSvG2Rqw7Ph2GDY87LNffrNYKO99ibt1MUUnG1KDyVuEWbklX" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJSvG2Rqw7Ph2GDY87LNffrNYKO99ibt1MUUnG1KDyVuEWbklX" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I think that sometimes Sarah's moment of weakness in which she doubted the possibility of God's promise would be fulfilled through her (when she gave her maid-servant, Hagar, to Abraham) makes us forget that she still had great faith. But Sarah did believe and she did trust in God's faithfulness. As far as the Bible indicates, this was had never been heard of before that an old woman would bear a child. It was all faith. Elizabeth in the New Testament, at least had precedents to encourage her. Not Sarah. But the promise given to her was reinforced with these precious words, <i>'Is any thing too hard for the Lord?'</i> (Genesis 18:14). </span><span style="font-size: large;">My name is Sarah (I personally love that name!) and I always find this verse quite encouraging whenever I face humanly impossible things in my life - big or small. I want to have Sarah's faith and obedience - to judge Him faithful who promises. That's why </span><span style="font-size: large;">Sarah is also called the mother of all faithful daughters of God (see 1 Peter 3:6). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Oh so much more could be said about the faith of Abraham and Sarah, but I think I've kept you all too long. These were just some of my personal reflections. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Their faith inspires me to press on and hold on to God even when the going is hard and all human reason screams 'doubt!'. Because of Abraham's faith and obedience, God gave him the greatest promise any human being could receive. Through his descendants, the Saviour of the world was given. All</span><span style="font-size: large;"> those who have the faith of Abraham and do his godly works, are true children of Abraham (see Galatians 3:7 and John 8:39). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God bless - till the next 'Hall of Faith' series post:)</span></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-41300931223908603902012-02-14T13:46:00.000+10:002012-02-25T22:59:08.387+10:00Not An Average Girl<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">TA DA! Today I'd like to announce the grand opening of a new blog, <i><a href="http://noegarevagirl.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Not An Average Girl</a>! </i>It is a magazine blog created by seven (up til now) young ladies from Australia: Hannah, Dakota, Mary, Joy, Jessica, Brooke and myself. God willing, I'll be contributing to it as much as I can. You are all very welcome to view it anytime and find out more about us. Guest posts and other contributors will also be welcome as time goes on. So, please visit, 'follow' (or become a regular reader) and get in contact with us. We pray that it would truly be to the glory of God and be an encouragement to other young ladies who want to grow in their walk with the Lord Jesus. <a href="http://noegarevagirl.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/welcome-to-this-blog.html" target="_blank">More here...</a></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yJYiv9vhmVw/Ty0ObdVFwwI/AAAAAAAAC7I/h3WhrXHFCm8/s200/FFFEFFFFEBFA_152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yJYiv9vhmVw/Ty0ObdVFwwI/AAAAAAAAC7I/h3WhrXHFCm8/s200/FFFEFFFFEBFA_152.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://noegarevagirl.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">Click Here!</span></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Be blessed today! And I suppose I should say "Happy Valentine's Day!"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<div class="result-text-style-normal text-html " style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<h3 style="font-size: 1.05em;">
What is True Love?</h3>
<h3 style="font-size: 1.05em;">
<span style="color: #5c1101; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">1 Corinthians 13</span></h3>
<div class="txt-sm" style="color: #5c1101; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
New King James Version (NKJV)</div>
<div class="txt-sm" style="color: #5c1101; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="chapter-2">
<i><span class="text 1Cor-13-1"><span class="chapternum" style="bottom: -0.1em; font-size: 1.25em; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0.8em; position: relative;">13 </span>Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. </span><span class="text 1Cor-13-2" id="en-NKJV-28668"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">2 </sup>And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. </span><span class="text 1Cor-13-3" id="en-NKJV-28669"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">3 </sup>And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,<sup class="footnote" style="font-size: 0.65em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;" value="[<a href="#fen-NKJV-28669a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]">[<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13&version=NKJV#fen-NKJV-28669a" style="color: #b37162; text-decoration: none;" title="See footnote a">a</a>]</sup> but have not love, it profits me nothing.</span></i></div>
<i><span class="text 1Cor-13-4" id="en-NKJV-28670"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">4 </sup>Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;</span><span class="text 1Cor-13-5" id="en-NKJV-28671"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">5 </sup>does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; </span><span class="text 1Cor-13-6" id="en-NKJV-28672"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">6 </sup>does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; </span><span class="text 1Cor-13-7" id="en-NKJV-28673"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">7 </sup>bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="text 1Cor-13-8" id="en-NKJV-28674"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">8 </sup>Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. </span><span class="text 1Cor-13-9" id="en-NKJV-28675"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">9 </sup>For we know in part and we prophesy in part. </span><span class="text 1Cor-13-10" id="en-NKJV-28676"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">10 </sup>But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="text 1Cor-13-11" id="en-NKJV-28677"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">11 </sup>When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. </span><span class="text 1Cor-13-12" id="en-NKJV-28678"><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">12 </sup>For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.</span></i><br />
<span class="text 1Cor-13-13" id="en-NKJV-28679"><i><sup class="versenum" style="font-size: 0.75em; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: text-top;">13 </sup>And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.</i></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Amen! May the Lord grant us to live this. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God showed us this great love through our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>'For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'</i> (John 3:16) </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God Bless, </span><br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-color: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-style: initial !important; border-top-width: 0px !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-43432261014786636312012-02-05T00:31:00.001+10:002012-02-05T17:32:42.110+10:00Hall of Faith: Noah (Hebrews 11:7)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s1600/hallway+with+busts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s320/hallway+with+busts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
************************************************</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Today's Hall of Faith character is Noah. Yes, Noah and the Ark! Everyone knows about that! You know, the ark, the animals, the Flood, the rainbow, etc... Since childhood we've all just loved it. But guess what! I think I love this account more now than I probably ever did when I was a little child. That's because I know now how deep and serious it was, as well as amazing.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">After Cain killed Abel, God gave Adam and Eve another son. They called him Seth. He grew up to be like Abel - a man who feared God. Now there were two main family lines on earth: the line of Cain (representing those who were of the world, who were ungodly) and the line of Seth (representing those who were children of God). The entire Bible is full of that tension between the sons of light and the sons of darkness. This also continues till today. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The years pass and those of the line of Cain grew more and more wicked. For several generations there was a difference between the Cain Line and the Seth Line. As time went on, however, the Seth line began to intermingle with Cain's line. They took on their ways and soon became like them. They lost touch with God, their Creator. They forgot God's instructions. They became violent and wicked (see Genesis 6). The only person on earth who kept himself and was not defiled by all of this was Noah. The Bible says that God saw Noah was just, 'perfect in his generation', who walked with Him (Genesis 6:9). What a wonderful thing for God to look and see us perfect in His sight. He sees that when we are clothed with the Righteousness of Christ. Amen! </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQGNapyYoiTbE3lTf6N5hZRz5mUiD8OiBTSBw9xJClvhbKShJvs" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQGNapyYoiTbE3lTf6N5hZRz5mUiD8OiBTSBw9xJClvhbKShJvs" width="336" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When God saw the wickedness, He regretted that He created man (see Genesis 6:6)! However, He wanted to save Noah. So He told him He was going to destroy the whole earth with a Flood. God told Him to build himself a huge ark and take with him his wife, his three sons, and their wives, as well as, two of every kind of animal, male and female, and seven from the clean animals. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In Hebrews 11:7 it says that <i>'By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.' </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/noahs-ark-1b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/noahs-ark-1b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Noah believed God and obeyed Him when it was not the popular thing to do. Can you imagine! He was the only really Godly man on earth! It reminds me of the words of the song: 'Though none go with me, I still will follow'. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Noah really had faith in God. He built the ark contrary to all human reasoning. Building a ship on dry land! Yet, he feared God and trusted His Word and that's what saved him, his family, and all mankind. He did not look to the seen and visible, rather he looked to the unseen, which is eternal (see II Corinthians 4:18).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Give us Lord that faith. To trust you and obey you without wavering and always look to that which is unseen which will last forever. Amen!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Learn More:</u></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I highly recommend watching this <a href="http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/noahs-ark.html#!http://screensandreels-sarah.blogspot.com/2012/02/noahs-ark.html" target="_blank">classic movie about Noah</a>. It follows the Biblical account closely. Though, I think the actual ark was much bigger, and perhaps a little bit more orderly:) </span></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-36882847308344253992012-01-25T12:46:00.000+10:002012-03-10T21:48:40.130+10:00Nothing Shall Separate Us From God's Love: A Testimony<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2H00Qkhqca7YPxN3sXjbCU2hrErw5SDVyLvVSGtA80NKUGbw5iw" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT2H00Qkhqca7YPxN3sXjbCU2hrErw5SDVyLvVSGtA80NKUGbw5iw" width="231" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Today I just want to share a testimony that touched and encouraged me deeply and still does whenever I hear it. It is of a Vietnamese Christian, Hien Pham, during and after the Vietnam War. It really illustrates our Heavenly Father's eternal love, grace, mercy and faithfulness to us, His erring and weak children. Hien is a very close friend of the Godly evangelist and Christian apologist, <a href="http://gemsinhistory-sarah.blogspot.com/search/label/Ravi%20Zacharias" target="_blank">Ravi Zacharias</a>. Ravi Zacharias loves to relate this testimony in many of his talks and sermons. I quote it here from one <a href="http://www.rzim.org/justthinkingfv/tabid/602/articleid/10018/cbmoduleid/881/default.aspx" target="_blank">his keynote address delivered on the National Day of Prayer, 2008, in Washington, D.C.</a>: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQR1oNnjnRq4KF5RNpmA0XRzmxcL5QVXn4epOcFaFCJCrdpdIuxBw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQR1oNnjnRq4KF5RNpmA0XRzmxcL5QVXn4epOcFaFCJCrdpdIuxBw" width="320" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Of all the stories I’ve told after thirty years of traveling, this one is nearest to my heart, probably the most moving to me. In 1971, I preached in Vietnam. I was in my mid twenties; my interpreter was seventeen years old. His name was Hien Pham. We covered the length and breadth of the country. The American troops carried us around or we went by motorbike. How our lives were rescued, I don’t know. But we came back safely. A revival broke out in the country through the preaching of these two young men.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Hien was my interpreter. In the city Natrang, I held him close, embraced him, and said, “Goodbye, Hien. I’ll probably never see you again.” I flew to Saigon and on back where I was living at that time in Toronto.<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;"> Seventeen years later, my phone rang. I was in</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Vancouver speaking and the phone rang at 11:00 p.m.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The man said, “Brother Ravi.” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There’s only one person who called me with that intonation that way. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I said, “Hien, is that you?”<span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">he said, “Yes.” </span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I said, “Oh my word! Where are you?” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “California.” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I said, “What are you doing here?” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “Have you got a few minutes?” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I said, “Yes.” </span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “After Vietnam fell, I was imprisoned by the Viet Cong because I’d worked with the Americans, worked with people like you. They put me behind bars, they took away all English from me, took away my Bible from me, tried to knock faith out of me. I was only allowed to read Marx and Engels in French and Vietnamese. After about a year in there, so worn out, I said, ‘Maybe you don’t exist, God. I’m giving up all hope. I don’t believe in you. Tomorrow when I wake up, I’m not going to pray.’ <span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">That morning, he was assigned to clean the latrines. </span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “Brother Ravi, it’s the dirtiest place on earth you’d want to be. I bound a handkerchief around my mouth cleaning the wet floor, and I saw a little bin with dirty pieces of paper, with human excrement in it. But something told me as I looked there, there was one paper, a piece of paper with English.” He said, “I hadn’t read English for so long. I washed it off, put it in my hip pocket, waited for everybody to go to bed, to sleep. Lights were out.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I took out my flashlight under my mosquito net. I flashed it. On the right hand corner it said, Romans chapter 8.” He said, “I started reading and cried. ‘Oh, my dear Lord, you didn’t leave me one day without you.’ ‘For all things work together for good to them that love God; to those that are called according to his purpose. For who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Neither things present, nor things to come, nor life nor death.’”<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Hien said, “Next morning I went back to the commanding officer. I said, ‘Do you mind if I clean the latrines again today?’” <span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He went there every day. He found another page from the New Testament. The commanding officer had been given a Bible a long time ago. He was tearing out a page every day using it as toilet paper. Hien was washing it and using it for his devotions every day.<span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: justify;">I said, “Where are you now?”</span> </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “I’m at Berkeley doing my business degree.” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I said, “I can’t believe this, Hien.” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “I’m in America.” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I said, “How did that happen?” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “I was released and I built a boat with 52 others. Four days before my release, before our escape, four Viet Cong came armed to the teeth and grabbed me and said, ‘Are you trying to escape?’ I lied and said, ‘No.’ They said, ‘Are you telling us the truth?’” He said, “Yes.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">They let him go. He got on his knees, and said, “God, I lied. I’m running my own life. I lied. If you really want me to tell them the truth, let them come back again.” He said, “I sincerely hoped that prayer would never be answered. Hours before we left, the four of them came with their machine guns, grabbed me by the collar, rammed me against the wall. ‘You’re lying, aren’t you?’”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Hien said, “Yes, I’m escaping with 52 others. Are you going to imprison me again?” They said, “No. we want to go with you.’</span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Brother Ravi, if it weren’t for them we would never have made it. They knew how to navigate the ocean on that boat, get us safely to Thailand. I was then listed as a United Nations refugee. I’m here in America now doing my business degree.”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He runs a financial planning company now in California. He came and visited us, wanted me to officiate at his wedding, and he looked at my kids and said, “Don’t ever think God is far away from you. That intimate relationship is the greatest thrill of anyone’s life, for He seeks such to have fellowship with Him.” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">May God bless our nation and may God call us to prayer. May the greatest days be ahead...God bless you.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrV6uWu2giLT--bgdGU99h7mdL8QBXIOANsT6Vybj7LmLlNyqw" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="553" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrV6uWu2giLT--bgdGU99h7mdL8QBXIOANsT6Vybj7LmLlNyqw" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose...</span></i><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i>What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i> He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i>Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i> Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i> Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i>As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i> Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i> For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<i> Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;">
(Romans 8:28, 31-39)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">May it bless you today as it has blessed me. Nothing can separate us from His love. Amen! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God Bless,</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a><br />
*************************<br />
This Testimony is also found in Ravi Zacharias' book: <i>Deliver Us From Evil</i>. </div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-56756516684260763272012-01-17T13:02:00.000+10:002012-02-05T17:34:03.223+10:00Faith<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQEhr_jG-U7WAUZfUVk5gJQJZlx-4Ewhflts2wTtRcyn8EjsTVZtQ" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQEhr_jG-U7WAUZfUVk5gJQJZlx-4Ewhflts2wTtRcyn8EjsTVZtQ" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When you think your heart is broken, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And your very soul seems crushed, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When the darkness closes 'round you, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And the voice of God seems hushed, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Lift your eyes toward the heavens, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Toward the vastness that is there, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Tell your troubles to your Maker, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He will understand and care. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Others sick have drowned their sorrow, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Struggled onward to success, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There's a chance with each tomorrow, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Face about, He'll do the rest. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Elizabeth Greer Waite </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(Quoted from the book <i>I Serve the God of Miracles: 80 years of the Miraculous</i> by Edith Ward Heflin)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">God bless, </span></div>
<br /></div>
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8874497528699043469.post-66515569611675377332012-01-12T23:50:00.001+10:002012-02-05T17:34:38.660+10:00Hall of Faith Series: Abel and Enoch (Hebrews 11:4-5)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s1600/hallway+with+busts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-H1Q0Z563nC65NKqto4jnatS_4xKkzpI4VZsim_7f28cx-KmzS56ETUvKmeOjAZAYK1LbWrDPVyRnuMPTLjWbajfSiYHp0zQKUqVvg2b1DtxvohOBXQF6riAvPjVVvky4JlIzLsuafVY/s320/hallway+with+busts.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Welcome to the first post in the <i>Hall of Faith</i> Series. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I hope you'll be blessed.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
*******************************************************************************</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTKV6Xchflqy4Yx0tXEum0tAHtbSTaz74ATtG3cZfIT1FYeoUZIbw" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTKV6Xchflqy4Yx0tXEum0tAHtbSTaz74ATtG3cZfIT1FYeoUZIbw" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abel offering a <br />
'more excellent sacrifice than Cain'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The list of characters in the Hall of Faith of Hebrews 11, starts from the early beginnings of history with righteous Abel, who was the first one on earth to ever experience death and death by violence. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh"</b> </i>(Hebrews 11:4) </span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQnzyv0eHTs0QHirTSeTrk4dSZPTD82upuH-FhFE41NG6YBnC76" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQnzyv0eHTs0QHirTSeTrk4dSZPTD82upuH-FhFE41NG6YBnC76" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As we all know the account from Genesis, he was the second son of Adam and Eve. Unlike his brother Cain, Abel took heed to what his parents said God required of them after their fall in the Garden of Eden. This was now the only way to approach God as sinners - offering a blood sacrifice. It was, of course, looking forward to Christ, the Saviour, who was to come and be <i>'...the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' </i></span>(John 1:29)<span style="font-size: large;">. God gave Abel true saving faith. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Abel was a shepherd, but Cain was a farmer (see Genesis 4:2). The Bible say in Genesis 4 that one day Cain and Abel decided to offer a sacrifice to God. Cain decided to offer fruits and vegetables he has grown. This does not sound too bad at first. However, he totally missed the whole meaning of the offering. He had no faith in it. It is was just a duty to him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Abel on the other hand understood by faith what the offering represented. The blood of the blameless lamb was to be his substitute before God for his sins. Through faith he saw his Redeemer. That was what he brought to God - <i>'...the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof'</i> </span>(Genesis 4:4).<span style="font-size: large;"> It was also his best. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The Bible says that <i>'the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect'</i> </span>(Genesis 4:4-5).<span style="font-size: large;"> God looked into Abel's heart and found faith and saw him as righteous. But He did not find it in Cain. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Cain, of course, was angry with God and Abel and so, murdered his own brother! </span><span style="font-size: large;">In 1 John 3:12, it says why he slew him: </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">'because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.'</span></i><i style="font-size: x-large;"> </i><span style="font-size: large;">Even in his death he still speaks faith to us. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">May the Lord give us the faith of righteous Abel! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">*****************************************************</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRBeJYaCPUyeFoAdMT3MXPfgsxGnyZBAgVMogEw5tmZxgktOYI6" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRBeJYaCPUyeFoAdMT3MXPfgsxGnyZBAgVMogEw5tmZxgktOYI6" width="246" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The next character in the Hall of Faith is that of Enoch. We know so very little about him, except for these precious words: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God" </b></i>(Hebrews 11: 5). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Enoch and Elijah, were the only ones on earth to ever experience this: not tasting earthly death.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">God did this for Enoch because he pleased Him. That is indeed a precious thing to have that said about you. But without FAITH it is impossible to please God (see Hebrews 11:6). When we approach God we must believe '<i>...that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him'</i> (11:16). Therefore, Enoch was full of faith in God. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The only other place in the Bible where we know something more about Enoch's faith is in Jude 1:14-16, where Enoch is said to have prophesied, saying that <i>'...the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him...' </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This is just a glimpse of the godliness and faith of this man of God. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">May the Lord grant us the faith of Enoch that causes us to please God always. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for joining me on this journey. My presentation here is very poor. But I know it will be a learning journey for me and am being blessed with it as I hope it will bless you, too.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54490/69/65E0519784753DCA03E9F0D938ACF406.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a><br />
**********************<br />
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><u>Learn More</u>: </b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Genesis 4:1-16</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Hebrews 11: 4-6</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Sarah C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16600009434792001626noreply@blogger.com6