Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"But loud clamorous cries resounded throughout the Trojan host; for they had not one speech and one language, but a confusion of tongues, since they were called from many lands. Thy were like a huge flock of ewes innumerable standing in a wide farmyard to be milked, which bleat without ceasing as they hear the cries of their lambs" (56).

"There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, 'If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.'" - Exodus 15:25-26

"His father, Prescott Bush, was a successful businessman who went on in later life to become a Senator. Bush credited him with passing on his core values: 'Tell the truth, be honest, work hard, try to see the other guy's point of view while sticking to your own principles. These were truisms, you might say that my three brothers and my sister and I had inculcated into us growing up'" (337).

"'Do not come any closer,' God said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.' Then he said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God." - Exodus 3:5-6

"Hear me, Trojans, and you men of Achaia, while I give you a message from Alexandros, who was the cause of our war. He asks that both Trojans and Achaians lay down their arms on the ground, and let Menelaos and himself fight a duel for Helen and all her wealth. Whichever proves the better ma shall take bot wealth and woman home with him; then let both sides swear friendship and peace" (41).

"But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt." - Genesis 45:7-8

"The tragic plunge from height of favor to depth of despair dominates Lamentations as it does Job. In both, God's purposes are shrouded in mystery. Yet hope and faith are made possible by the revelation of the character of the God who has allowed such pain. After admitting her guilt, Judah's only cause for hope is in God's mercy and benevolence" (531).

"'What do you have that you did not receive?' This is an invitation to experience one of those rare, unguarded moments of total honesty, where in the presence of the eternal God one recognizes that everything - absolutely everything - that one 'has' is gift. All is grace; nothing is deserved, nothing earned. Those who so experience grace also live from a posture of unbounded gratitude" (186).

"But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness & granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, & he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with Joseph & gave him success in whatever he did." - Gen 39-20-23

"...when the Senate rejected the treaty, Wilson's great dream for a new world order was shattered. 'I have given my vitality, and almost my life, for the League of Nations,' Wilson wrote. 'If I were not a Christian I think I should go mad'" (327).

"He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: 'I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are living." - Genesis 28:12-13

"'We don't have to go to Texas. Maybe we head over the border to Kentucky. That's still close to home.' 'They're talking about sealing the border. And leave the business? I built that office for 20 years. I'm 45. I can't just start over in a different country.'"

"The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.'" - Genesis 6:2-3

"Hector Priamides commanded the Trojans. He had under his own hand much the larger division of armed spearmen, and the best men. The Dardanians were led by Aineias son of Anchises. His mother was the divine Aphrodite, who lay with Anchises on the foothills of Mount Ida, goddess with mortal man. With Aineias were the two sons of Antenor, Archelochos and Acamas, complete warriors both" (38).

"The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." - Genesis 12:1-3

"The son born to Naomi is more than just God's gift to continue her family line. He also begins the history of God's rule through the dynasty of David. In this way the book ties in to the Bible's main theme of redemptive history. Thus...the faithfulness of Ruth, Naomi, & Boaz achieved more than they knew. From their family stemmed the great David &, many generations later, great David's greater Son" (525).

"Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves will be food for you'" - Genesis 9:1-2

"...since the criterion is faithfulness to a committed trust, only the one from whom he had received the trust can judge him - not his fellow servants nor in this case those who might be 'under him,' the Corinthians themselves" (175).

"In regard to the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering the name as "LORD" in capital letters to distinguish it from Adonai another Hebrew word rendered "Lord," for which small letters are used" (viii).

"Compared with Earth, the Moon is a small body. Its diameter is only 2,160 miles (3,476 km), or about a quarter the size of Earth. This is actually extraordinarily large for a satellite in relation to the size of its parent planet. This is why astronomers sometimes consider Earth-Moon to be a double planetary system" (122).

"None who have been long in his service does he ever dismiss without grave cause. He does not expect one man to be capable of everything" (210).

"McKinley took an active role in negotiating the Treaty of Paris, and forcefully stood up to the Speaker of the House, who opposed it. By so doing, he established the modern presidency as he preeminent force in American national government" (314).

"My lords, and you their subjects, for you I pray that the gods who dwell in Olympos may grant you to sack Priam's city, and to have a happy return home! but my dear daughter - set her free, I beseech you, and accept this ransom, and respect Apollo shootafar the son of Zeus!" (11).

"The best way to test whether a person can lead rather than just manage is to ask him to create positive change. Managers can maintain direction, but often they can't change it. Systems and processes can do only so much. To move people in a new direction, you need influence" (17).

"The devotional benefits from allegorical or typical approaches to the song cannot be denied. The question, however, is what the author intended. Any allegorical reading is hazardous because the possibilities for variety in interpretation are limitless. One is more apt to find his or her own ideas than to discern the author's intent" (515-6).

"[Ken] proved of great value as engineer, methodical and painstaking to a degree, and withal a good shipmate, except that throughout the voyage, in spite of many disappointments, he always expected the worst to happen. To me he will always figure as Cassandra Ken" (676).

"The last of the original Virginia presidents, he possessed none of Thomas Jefferson's eloquence, or James Madison's genius, or George Washington's stature. But James Monroe had presided over a vast expansion of the American empire. He had spoken out as if the United States were a world power, and as he did so, it began to become one" (309).

"God is holy; his temple is therefore also holy, set apart for his purposes; & as God's temple, the only temple the living God has in Corinth, you are by implication also to be holy...this is not one of their strong suits. So the threat, which is real, is at the same time turned into an invitation for them to become what in fact they are by the grace of God, 'God's holy temple in Corinth'" (161-2).

"'You're just not reliable, int he sense that they could rely on you to complete your mission but they could not rely on you not to go and take it to the next level,' Said Clay. 'Delta wanted a xacto knife. Subtle, precise, And you're a battle axe with a mind of its own.' 'Not subtle, not precise.' 'No, Kelly, a man like you isn't given an assignment. You're unleashed'" (26).

"...the story of Achilles is a tragedy - the fiery onflit of a man divided against himself, who in a few short days drops to the lowest hell of savagery, then rises to self-mastery and inward peace. The last ineffable scene between him and Priam seems to me Homer's reading of the riddle of human life - purification by suffering..." (6)