Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"The detectives were all over the vehicles; they had retrieved some of the slugs, which were deformed but they were obviously large caliber hunting rounds. Cannon went inside, where Kessler was fuming in her office, sipping a Starbuks coffee. Her subordinates were not looking to her for solutions. They were exploring their own. 'I ain't going back out there on those backwoods Deliverance country-ass roads...'" (205).

"That [the virgin birth] actually happened demonstrates that there is no contradiction in the idea that God can take on human nature. God in his essence is certainly beyond human apprehension, and yet the incarnation/virgin birth demonstrates that he is not so transcendent as to be 'wholly other' and, hence, utterly unknowable or incapable of contact with his creatures" (411).

"If you don't believe in the vision and enthusiastically pursue it, doing all that you can to bring it to fruition, then you won't start making the small gains required to get the ball rolling to create momentum. However, if you model enthusiasm to your people day in and day out, attract like-minded people to your team, and motivate them to achieve, you will begin to see forward progress" (215-6).

"Ah! Eternel, Dieu du ciel, Dieu grand et redoutable, toi qui restes fidele a ton alliance et qui conserves ta bienveillance a ceux qui t'aiment et qui obeissent a tes commandements, prete attention a la priere de ton serviteur! Que tes yeux soient ouverts pour voir que je suis en priere devant toi en ce moment, jour et nuit, pour interceder en faveur de tes serviteurs les Israelites..." - Nehemie 1:5-6

"...Old Hickory had enough. In the 1835 Congressional campaign, he tore into 'Crocket and Co.,' as he contemptuously called the Colonel. David fought back, told his constituents that he had done his best for them; if they didn't re-elect him, they could go to hell - he would go to Texas. It was no use. Crockett lost the election by 230 votes" (51).

"In turning Torah into 'laws to be observed' God's people thus turned them into merely human regulations, missing their intent as revelation of God's likeness to be lived out among God's people, hence the need for a circumcision of the heart, effected by the Spirit, to replace that of the 'flesh'" (300).

"...the shields all stood like a fence about Patroclos, and the spears stuck out. Aias was everywhere, keeping the men in hand; he would not let any one move back, or go out in front, but made them stand close round the body and lunge when they could. Such were the tactics of that prodigious man. The ground was red with blood, men were falling one after another among the assailants..." (208-9).

"One of the most important disciplines for God's warriors to cultivate is fasting. When you couple fasting with prayer, your prayers transcend earthly understanding and bring about supernatural breakthrough" (166).

"It had been 8 days since the attack on the administrative building & the checkpoint, 8 days of organizing & training. True to his word, Dale Chalmers the insurance salesman had identified the likely rebellion's early adopters & set up the cells. Reliable contacts turned them on to other reliable contacts. Each night, Dale & Turnbull met to assess the new prospects & to analyze the information...coming in" (190).

"Philo's Logos was 'reason' and an 'it.' John's Logos is 'the Word' and a 'he.' Philo's Logos was a principle. John's Logos is a person. John's Logos is not only God's agent in creation; he is God. He is God's personal, visible... communication to man in revealing and redeeming power. The term Logos does not explain Jesus; Jesus explains and fills Logos with new meaning. Wisdom has become a person..." (400-1).

"Tout ce qui nous est arrive est la consequence de nos mauvais actions et notre grand culpability. Et encore, o notre Dieu, tu ne nous as pas punis comme le meritaient nos peches, tu as laisse subsister ce rest de notre peuple." - Esdras 9:13

"Another visitor provided me with some amusement. He was an English tourist off one of the Icelandic steamers that do the round of Iceland starting from Reykjavik. The usual questions were put - how many days from England and where were we bound for - and on being told Greenland he remarked brightly: 'Ah! Following in Tilman's footsteps'" (748).

"Lorsque Josias entendit le contenu de la Loi, il dechira ses vetements...'Allez consulter l'Eternel pour moi' leur dit-il, 'ainsi que pour le reste du peuple qui se trouve en Israel et en Juda, au sujet des enseignements de livre que l'on vient de retrouver. Car la colere de l'Eternel est bien grande...parce que nos ancetres n'ont pas obei a la parole de l'Eternel...'" - 2 Chroniques 34:19-21

"It may metaphorically be said hat natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life" (42).

"In 1835 - barely fifty years after Yorktown - there were many people still alive who knew the exhilarating call of freedom. Even some who had fought for it in battle. And many had a father, or uncle, or brother who had been at Breed's Hill, Cowpens, Valley Forge. For these people, liberty - anybody's liberty - had a very real meaning. It was something to fight and die for" (42).

"A passage like this ought to serve as a constant reminder to all of us (scholar, pastor, student of the Bible) that the NT was written in the context of real people in a very real world. Biblical texts are too often the scholar's playground & the believer's rule book, without adequate appreciation for the truly human nature of these texts...written by one whose speech was ever informed by his theology..." (284).

"Agreement begins with a God focus and a heart that is close to Him. When your heart is knit to the Lord, He then will knit you together with another to accomplish more than you could ever accomplish alone" (159).

"...some hold that the servant represents the coming Messiah, the royal Davidic King, the ideal Israelite who is totally committed to and consecrated for Yahweh's will and work. This servant embodies all that is good in Israel. The picture of the Servant of the Lord, of his mission to Israel and to the world, and of his substitutionary suffering, is prophecy of the future" (397).

"...the kingly aspects of messianism. But the subject...in the New Testament is considerably broader. Jesus is pictured there not only as the fulfillment of the royal ideal as Son of David but of many other Old Testament themes as well: as wise man he is greater than Solomon...as Son of Man he fulfills Daniel's vision...as prophet and lawgiver he is a second Moses...as priest he outranks Aaron..." (694).

"'You still have more access than anyone else. You still see the bigger picture. The question is what are you going to do to help us?' 'What, help you kill them?' 'It'll probably come to that.' 'Who the hell do you think you are? You're an insurance agent, Dale, not a guerrilla.' 'The guys who won World War II weren't soldiers either, until they were.'" (183-4).

"Good leaders who practice the Law of Victory keep fighting. They never stop looking for ways for their teams to win. Does that man they always do win? No, of course not. But even a loss can be turned into a win when you learn from it. In fact, losses often teach us more than victories" (204).

"Pourquoi t'es-tu tourne vers les dieux de ce peuple qui n'ont meme pas ete capables de delivrer leur propre peuple de ton pouvoir?" - 2 Chroniqus 25:15

"My good man, why do you bandy words like this? You are wasting time. Taunts and jibes will not drive the Trojans away from the dead body. Many a man will fall before that! Words are potent in debate, deeds in war decide your fate. Then don't go on piling up words, but fight!" (198).

Of Samaria - "Outer casemate wall (1.8 m.), inner wall (1.0 m.) with 7 m of space between, made installation 10.0 m. thick. Survived Assyrian attack and remained useful for centuries" (683).

"Above all, [Travis] was ambitious. Intensely self-centered, by the time he was twenty-three he had already written his autobiography. He liked to dramatize himself and had a deep, almost mystical sense of mission. Perhaps the most significant line in his whole diary came the day after mud and high water kept him from visiting Rebecca: 'The first time I ever turned back in my life'" (34).

"...Timothy's coming to them would reflect his genuine concern about them; Timothy simply is not one to seek his own interests ahead of those of Christ Jesus...it is hard to imagine a more certain antidote to any number of struggles that consistently plague the local church...than this one - that God's people...putting the interests of others as the matter of first importance" (270-1)

"While we were handing the sails & wondering where to find a berth we were hailed from the shore and directed to one of the many steamer wharves, at that moment vacant. Usually a yacht is ignored & left to find its own accommodation from whence in short time it will be told to move. This seemed almost too civil & we found it was merely for the benefit of the Custom who wanted to seal our stores and go home" (743).

"Praying in the Spirit is a means by which the Holy Spirit intercedes through your spirit in prayer...When you pray with your understanding, you are easily influenced by your feelings, thoughts, desires, experiences...Even your vocabulary can limit your prayers. God gives you a prayer language that bypasses your mind, will and emotions and allows you to continue in prayer without interruption" (149).

"It is good to try in imagination to give to any one species an advantage over another...in no single instance should we know what to do. This ought to convince us of our ignorance on the mutual relations of all organic beings...All that we can do, is to keep steadily in mind that each organic being is striving to increase in a geometrical ratio; that each at some period...has to struggle for life..." (39).

"L'Eternel sera avec vous tant que vous serez avec lui; si vous vous attachez a lui, il interviendra en votre faveur; si vous l'abandonnez, lui, il vous abandonnera." - 1 Chronizues 15:2