Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"In the plains of Moab...the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelites, & say to them: When you cross over the Jordan...you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their figured stones, destroy all their cast images, & demolish all their high places. You shall take possession of the land & settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess." - Num 33:50-53

"He sought to use traditional tools of wisdom to refute and revise its traditional conclusions. Like Job, he protested against the easy generalizations with which his fellow teachers taught their pupils to be successful. They had oversimplified life and its rules so as to mislead and frustrate their followers. Their observations seemed superficial and their counsel thin..." (500).

"God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? See, I received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob; nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The Lord their God is with them, acclaimed as a king among them." - Numbers 23:19-21

"To Reagan, much as it had been to Calvin Coolidge, big government was the enemy of the American way. Reagan's vision was one of individual enterprise and a return to what he called the self-confident spirit of the founding fathers. When he won the election by an electoral landslide, he called it 'the Reagan revolution of 1980'" (294).

"The Lord is slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children to the third and the fourth generation." - Numbers 14:18

"And he said, 'Hear my words: When there are prophets among you, I the Lord make myself known to them in visions; I speak to them in dreams. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak face to face - clearly, not in riddles; and he beholds the form of the Lord.'" - Numbers 12:6-8

"Wherever you look, you can find smart, talented, successful people who are able to go onl so far because of the limitations of their leadership" (9).

"The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace." - Numbers 6:22-26

"...the Sun...lies on average about 93 million miles (150 million km) away from Earth, a distance known as the astronomical unit (AU). As stars go, it is relatively small, with a diameter of about 865,000 miles (1,390,000 km). It gives off a yellowish light. Astronomers classify it as a yellow dwarf" (118).

"As with the whole of Scripture, Job's author pictures God as neither bound by human concerns nor beholden to human concepts of him. What God does springs freely from his own will. There are no guidelines to which he must conform. He chose to create...the universe, to inaugurate & govern the march of history. God may work by the order & pattern spelled out in Deuteronomy...or transcend those bounds in Job" (494).

"The Master said, How could one ever possibly serve one's prince alongside of such low-down creatures? Before they have got office, they think about nothing but how to get it; and when they have got it, all they care about is to avoid losing it. And so soon as they see themselves in the slightest danger of losing it, there is no length to which they will not go" (202).

"Clear of the river but before we had begun hoisting any sails I noticed a lot of water coming into the galley high up on the starboard side, and on removing a bit of the lining we enjoyed a view of the Isle of Wight between two of the waterline planks where a foot or two of caulking had spewed out" (671).

"In contrast to the glitzy stars of the roaring twenties, Hoover projected an image of public-spiritedness and morality and, above all, competence. In 1921 he was named President Harding's secretary of commerce, a post to which he was reappointed by Calvin Coolidge. He was soon being described as 'Under-Secretary of everything else, ' as he staked out claims to many aspects of other departments" (284).

"Those that have, in the day of grace, most earnestly interceded for sinners, will, in the day of judgment, be content to see them perish, and will glorify God in their destruction" (126).

"It was August 2022. With Hillary Clinton finally president - the third time was the charm - the US Army, in the years leading up to the Split, might not have been too concerned with winning wars, but it was definitely big on diversity, including diversity of gender identity. And Captain Turnbull didn't discriminate" (2).

"Puis, en y reflechissant, il trouva que sa maitresse prenait des allures etranges, et qu'on n'avait peut-etre pas tort de vouloir l'en detacher."

"Job stands far above its nearest competitors, in the coherence of its sustained treatment of the theme of human misery, in the scope of its many-sided examination of the problem, in the strength and clarity of its defiant moral monotheism...in the heights of its lyrical poetry, in its dramatic impact, and in the intellectual integrity with which it faces the 'unintelligible burden' of human existence." (473).

"My father...had the strong New England trait of great repugnance at seeing anything wasted...He regarded waste as a moral wrong" (273).

"...I saw a new heaven & a new earth, for the first heaven & the first earth passed away...And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, & He shall dwell among them, & they shall be His peoples, & God Himself shall be among them." - Rev 21:1-3

"America, for Jefferson, represented something new in history - a giant leap forward from the old ways of other countries. America was to be built upon enlightened individualism and self-government. It was to be a vast domain of liberty, filled with essentially equal people" (260).

"And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) & the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns & seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came & he took it out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures & the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb..." - Revelation 4:6-8

"In seeking to interpret the various proverbs and apply them to life, one must bear in mind that they are generalizations. Though stated as absolutes - as their literary form requires - they are meant to be applied in specific situations and not indiscriminately...Implicit, then, to a correct understanding of wisdom was the awareness of its limits...they could be misleading if viewed as magical sayings" (469).

"But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." - 2 Peter 1:20-21

"...Truman was severely criticized for dropping the bomb on Japanese citizens. But to the end of his life, he never doubted his decision. 'The greatest part of the President's job,' he said, 'is to make decisions - big ones and small ones, dozens of them almost every day...The President, whoever he is - has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody'" (251).

"...Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to every one who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." - 1 Peter 3:15-16

"For the true Israelite all wisdom stemmed from God and was available to human beings only because they were creatures of God, capable of receiving divine revelation. But more than this, only the devout worshipper, who feared God, could really begin to be wise" (458).

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." - Hebrews 12:11-13

"But if Arthur became a creditable president, he also soon found he hated the office. Bored by the endless desk work and by matters of state, he routinely arrived late to the office and procrastinated on duties. He lived for his time off, and for his regular vacations, which he spent fishing or cruising on the presidential yacht" (240, 244).

"God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power." - Hebrews 1:1-3