Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"For in every country of the world, I believe, the avarice and injustice of princes and sovereign states, abusing the confidence of their subjects, have by degrees diminished the real quantity of metal, which had originally contained in their coins" (12).

"Instead of looking at books and pictures about the New Testament I looked at the New Testament. There I found an account, not in the least of a person with his hair parted in the middle or his hands clasped in appeal, but of an extraordinary being with lips of thunder and acts of lurid decision, flinging down tables, casting out devils, passing with the wild secrecy of the wind from mountain isolation..." (154).

"Tyler, your mission is to establish and man two observation posts. Establish one on the north wall, on Hill 865. We'll call that one OPNorth. Establish the second OP on the south wall, high enough to see both the east and wet sides of Wadi Al Sirree. Attach your SAW gunners and the rest of your squad to Sergeant Piper" (175).

"Love, that is, care for a believing brother or sister, determines Christian ethical life, not 'freedom.' As Paul makes clear in coming passages,...this does not mean that one's personal life with regard to food per se is absolutized, but that the first consideration in ethical conduct is not my own 'rights' but the good of the other" (430).

"There is nothing more distressing as running ashore, unless it be a doubt as to which continent the shore belongs" (905).

"Religion divided the cities as much as it united them. Under the polite and general worship of the remote Olympians lay the intenser cults of local deities and powers who served no vassalage to Zeus. Tribal and political separatism nourished polytheism, and made monotheism impossible" (175).

"The key point in salvation history is the death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus. In the proclamation of the gospel, this cluster of significant events is the pivot point of history and the culmination of God's plan from long ago. This plan was commanded by God, predicted by the prophets, accomplished in Christ, and proclaimed by faithful witnesses" (433).

"'But all your calculations rest on the fact that Miss Taggart is a virtuous woman, not the slut you're going to call her.' 'Yes, of course,' said Dr. Ferris. 'And that this means much more to me than a casual affair.' 'Of course.' 'If she and I were the kind of scum you're going to make us appear, your blackjack wouldn't work.' 'No, it wouldn't'" (516).

"Ils disent a du bois: 'Tu es mon pere!' et a la pierre: 'Toi, tu m'as mis au monde!' Ils m'ont tourne le dos, ne m'ont pas regarde en face, mais au jour du malheur, ils disent: 'Leve-toi, sauve-nous!'" - Jeremie 2:27

"The inhabitants of the Cape Verde Islands are related to those of Africa, like those of the Galapagos to America...it is obvious that the Galapagos Islands would be likely to receive colonists from America, whether by occasional means of transport...and the Cape Verde Islands from Africa; such colonists would be liable to modification - the principle of inheritance still betraying their original birthplace.

"Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone has felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point - and does not break" (144-5).

"Observation posts must be sited for maximum view of the surrounding area, for clear radio communications, and for defensibility" (162).

"For the Corinthians 'knowledge' (= insight), meant 'rights' to act in 'freedom,' which for them apparently had become the highest good, since it led to the exaltation of the individual. For Paul the opposite prevails: 'Love' means the 'free giving up' of one's 'rights' for the sake of others, and 'life together' in community is the aim of salvation" (425).

"...allow me to restate this critical truth lest you be tempted to cut corners and seek out easy fixes: There. Are. No. Shortcuts...I promise you that the answer to your sales problem is not a quick fix. There is no secret sauce. Trust me, we've all searched for a magic bullet. It. Doesn't. Exist" (162).

"...it is legitimate to see a theological unity throughout Luke-Acts. Theological unity can be embraced if the latter interprets or informs the former. As L. T. Johnson states, in Acts 'Luke provides the first authoritative interpretation of his Gospel'" (418).

"Then we had sanitary problems. The outlet pump on the lavatory broke down and, as we soon discovered, Baroque is not well adapted for business over the side. the double guard rails made things difficult except for a contortionist. Working up till midnight Nicholas and Andrew repaired the pump. At Godthaab I bought a galvanised bucket in case it happened again" (896).

"Rejouissez-vous avec Jerusalem, et soyez tous dans l'allegresse a son sujet, vous qui l'aimez! Prenez part a sa joie, vous tous qui avez pris le deuil a cause d'elle! Car vous serez nourris a son sein qui console jusqu'a en etre rassasies, et vous boirez, avec delices, la plenitude de sa gloire! Car ainsi parle l'Eternel: Je vais fair affluer la paix vers elle comme un fleuve..." - Esaie 66:10-12

"Aristotle described the constitutional history of 158 Greek city-states...In the colonies, rather than on the mainland, were born Greek poetry and prose, mathematics and metaphysics, oratory and history. Without them, and the thousand absorbing tentacles which they stretched out into the old world, Greek civilization, the most precious product in history, might never have been" (174).

"You will hear...that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is...the rich man...has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man. The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually...politically...financially corrupt. There is one thing that Christ...said...that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck" (122-3).

"'One-six, this is OP North. I've got infantry heading up into Trail 4.' Davis held his breath. A night infiltration followed by an early dawn attack by armor was the worst possible scenario. It now made sense. The enemy had launched an air assault to hold the north end of Wadi Al Sirree, the exit. He was now launching a dismounted attack to secure the entrance" (148).

"The Corinthians have argued that there is no reality to the...idols...Paul agrees, but he qualifies his agreement in two directions. First, the...'gods' have a reality of a kind that must...inform...their relationship with other believers & their...relationship to...God...Second...the Corinthians have a relationship to...God that must finally determine both their own lives & how they relate to other believers"(415).

"We've got to run the world for the sake of the little people. It's intelligence that's caused all the troubles of humanity. Man's mind is the root of all evil. This is the day of the heart. It's the weak, the meek, the sick and the humble that must be the only objects of our concern" (498).

"Ultimately, there is no substantial reason to doubt Luke's accuracy on empirical grounds. Where sources are available, Luke's information is shown to be reliable" (409)

"...when the warmth had fully returned, the same species, which had lately lived together on the European and North American lowlands, would again be found in the arctic regions of the Old and New Worlds, and on many isolated mountain summits far distant from each other" (189).

"Leve-toi, resplendis, car voici ta lumiere, car sur toi s'est levee la gloire du Seigneur. Voici que les tenebres couvrent la terre at une nuee sombre couvre les peuples, mais, sur toi, l'Eternel se levera lui-meme comme un soleil et l'on verra sa gloire apparaitre sur toi. Des people marcheront a ta lumiere et des rois a cette clarte qui s'est levee sur toi." - Esaie 60:1-2

"Getting off to a solid start requires absolute clarity on which activities will help your team, and consequently you, win...There are certainly no prizes for destroying your home life because you've allowed people at your company who don't understand your priorities to bury you with things they may consider important but make no contribution to your team's success" (157-8).

"As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same. No ideal will remain long enough to be realized, or even partly realized. The modern young man will never change his environment; for he will always change his mind" (111).

"I cannot remember ever making a kindlier start in more benign weather, yet with the needles still in sight astern Alec and Nicholas were communing with the sea over the rail, the latter not sufficiently overcome to forget to tell us in his querulous voice what he wanted for supper" (892).

"The problem is primarily attitudinal. They think Christian conduct is predicated on gnosis ('knowledge') and that knowledge gives them exousia ('rights/freedom') to act as they wish in this matter. Paul has another view: The content of their knowledge is only partially correct; but more importantly, gnosis is not the primary ground of Christian behavior; agape ('love') is" (401-2).

"'1-6, this is OP North. I've got infantry heading up into Trail 4.' It was all beginning to make sense now, Davis realized. The enemy had launched an air assault to seize the north end of Wadi Al Sirree, the exit. Now he was conducting a night infiltration attack to secure the western entrance of the valley. The enemy might have tried to air assault right on BP Yankee if our surprise fire hadn't scared him" (134).