Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"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).

"If the first generation of the Christian church proves anything, it is this: the power of God is infinitely greater than any human obstacles in its way. A humble Galilean craftsman, who suffered an untimely death and accumulated no earthly possession, wrote no books, and left behind nothing but a small band of disheartened followers, spawned a movement so powerful that it took the Roman Empire by storm" (397).

"The Greek invaders took possession of this coastal region by the ruthless law of colonial expansion - that natural resources unexploited by the native population will draw in, by a kind of chemical attraction, some other people to exploit them and pour them into the commerce and usage of the world" (159).

"It's their lack of social spirit. They refuse to recognize that production is not a private choice, but a public duty. They have no right to fail, no matter what conditions happen to come up. They've got to go on producing...A man's work is not a personal matter, it's a social matter. There's no such thing as a personal matter - or a personal life. That's what we've got to force them to learn" (493).

"If the existence of the same species at distant & isolated points of the earth's surface, can...be explained on the view of each species having migrated from a single birthplace; then, considering our ignorance with respect to former climatal & geographical changes and to the various occasional means of transport, the belief that a single birthplace is the law, seems to me incomparably the safest" (184).

"Quant a moi, declare l'Eternel, voici quelle est l'alliance que je fais avec eux: Mon Esprit qui repose sur toi et mes paroles que je mets dans ta bouche, ne s'ecarteront ni de ta bouche, ni de la bouche de tes enfants, ni de la bouche de leurs enfants. Voila ce que dit l'Eternel, des maintenant et [our l'eternity." - Esaie 59:21

"Whether you are yet keenly aware of it or not, as the team leader, you take up significant mental and emotional band-width in your people's minds and hearts, and that is why it is imperative we heed Donnie Williams's advice to balance our approach" (137).

"It is constantly assured...that when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like. But that is brutal annexation & imperialism on the part of the lamb. That is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the lamb. The real problem...Can the lion lie down with the lamb & still retain his royal ferocity? That is the problem the Church attempted; that is the miracle she achieved" (100).

"Nicholas, our bird-man, had a habit of whistling or breaking into loud song...Like the poet Gray who could stand only the hissing of the tea-kettle, I am averse to noise. It was like living in the monkey-house or an aviary...devoted mainly to the keeping of whooping cranes, whistling ducks, & macaws...we are all as God made us, some of us much worse, & he who will have eggs must bear with cackling" (891).

"To be 'in the Lord' is to have one's life come under the eschatological view of existence outlined at the beginning (vv. 29-31). Such a woman lives from such a radically different perspective and value system from that of a pagan husband that a 'mixed' marriage, where the 'two become one,' is simply unthinkable" (392).

"One of the major reasons that Davis lost was that he failed to secure his position before he established his defense...platoons & squads use both active & passive measures to enhance security. Platoons...add to their security by actions taken to deny enemy reconnaissance elements accurate information on friendly positions. This includes the destruction of enemy reconnaissance elements & the use of deception" (127).

"Every pastor is called to be a theologian. This may come as a surprise to some pastors who see theology as an academic discipline taken during seminary rather than as an ongoing and central part of the pastoral calling. Nevertheless, the health of the church depends on its pastors functioning as faithful theologians - teaching, preaching, defending and applying the great doctrines of the faith" (723).

"The orbit of empire in east & north had come full turn...Greek enterprise had transformed the islands of the Aegean & the coasts of Asia Minor, the Hellespont, the Black Sea, Macedonia, & Thrace into a busy network of Hellenized cities, throbbing with agriculture, industry, trade, politics...It only remained to conquer another Greece in the West, & build a bridge between ancient Hellas & the modern world" (158).

"Vous tous qui avez soif, venez, voici de l'eau! Et meme vous qui n'avez pas d'argent, venez, achetez et mangez! Venez acheter sans argent, oui, sans paiement, de vin, du lait! Pourquoi depensez-vous votre argent pour payer ce qui ne nourrit pas? Pourquoi travaillez-vous pour une nourriture qui ne rassasie pas? Ecoutez...alors vous mangerez ce qui est bon, vous vous delecterez d'aliments savoureux." - Esaie 55:1-2

"A city is the frozen shape of human courage - the courage of those men who thought for the first time of every bolt, rivet and power generator that went to make it. The courage to say, not 'It seems to me,' but 'It is' - and to stake one's life on one's judgment. You're not alone. Those men exist. They have always existed" (473-4).

"I found it was their daily taunt against Christianity that it was the light of one people & had left all others to die in the dark. But I also found that it was their special boast for themselves that science & progress were the discovery of one people, & that all others peoples had died in the dark. Their chief insult to Christianity was actually their chief compliment to themselves..." (89).

"As the accumulation of each formation has often been interrupted, and as long blank intervals have intervened between successive formations, we ought not to expect to find, as I attempted to show in the last chapter, in any one or in any two formations, all the intermediate varieties between the species which appeared at the commencement and close of those periods..." (176).

"All right, this is it. You all know the plan. Move to your ambush positions along each trail. I'll set up Position Yankee looking both ways. You stop them from the front. I'll back you up and block any attempt by their infantry to take us from the east. If you see a dismounted attack developing, call me ASAP, and I'll call for fires through Sergeant Mark. Any questions?" (109-10).

"...we are to live out our lives in the present age, whether married or not, as those who have been determined by the 'foreshortened time.' Being eschatological people is to free us from the grip of the world & its values. We are to live...as fully in the world but not controlled by its systems or values. Such freedom...removes from one the anxiety about which existence might be better..." (384).

"In the beginning God created the heavens &the earth...God does not surrender this good creation to Satan but wins it back through the blood of Christ...God...recreates a world that vindicates his original creation purposes. This means not just a heavenly city of refuge for flown-away souls, but an entire universe of rocks & trees & quasars & waterfalls - everything created in which he takes delight" (712).

"Big mountains are seldom climbed at the first attempt which is more often a pioneering effort, breaking the trail for those who follow. Whether successful or not, on these voyages of mine there is a little of the pioneer's reward as well as four months sailing to look back on with pleasure, four months of endeavor to mull over, and that much more experience to store away" (882-3).

"Levez les yeux au ciel, baissez-les sur la terre, car, comme une fumee, le ciel s'avanouira et, comme un vetement, la terre s'usera. Ses habitants mourront comme des mouches, mais mon salut sera etabli pour toujours, mon oeuvre de justice ne sera jamais ebranlee. Ecoutez-moi, vous qui savez ce qui est juste. O peuple, toi qui portes ma Loi au fond du coeur, ne crains donc pas les injures des hommes..."-Esaie 51:6-7

"Harmony is not an ending of conflict, it is a tension in which neither element definitely wins, but both function indispensably (like the radicalism of youth & the conservatism of old age). The struggle for existence is necessary in order that the better may be separated from the worse...the competition of individuals...& empires constitutes nature's supreme court, from whose verdict there is no appeal" (147).

"I had been blundering about...with two huge...machines-the world & the Christian tradition. I had found this hole in the world: one must somehow find a way of loving the world without trusting it...I found this projecting feature of Christian theology, like a sort of hard spike...that God was personal, & had made a world separate from Himself. The spike...fitted exactly into the hole in the world..." (79).

"...honestly, you owe it to Johnny. I mean it. You owe him the professional courtesy of confronting him with his under-performance. You owe him the opportunity to right the ship. And I truly believe that you owe him your very best help to make it happen" (124).

"...what is often heard is that Paul prefers singleness to marriage...But quite in contrast to Paul's own position...we often read into that preference that singleness is somehow a superior status. That causes some who do not wish to remain single to become anxious about God's will in their lives...Marriage...lies totally outside the category of 'commandments' to be obeyed or 'sin' if one does otherwise" (369).

"'We don't intend to fight from these positions. I plan to defend in each of the four trails of the western entrance...We'll move to our actual ambush positions along each trail early tomorrow morning. If hey try to come this way, we'll block them in these narrow trails,' David explained, pointing to the west. 'Bold plan,' Sandburg replied...'By the way, good job on bagging that enemy OP yesterday'" (101).

"Humans may pretend to be autonomous, but they live and move as subjects in a kingdom - either the kingdom of the god of this age or the kingdom of the Christ of God. The message of Christian eschatology is that the tumult of this present warfare between the people of Christ and the principalities and powers is not eternal. Armageddon has been on the horizon since Eden" (697).

"On nearly all coasts nowadays...alterations have been made by man in the shape of bases or weather stations...effectively to curtain off the distant past from the imagination of the present-day visitor...Not so on the north and east coasts of Vestspitzbergen....the coast looked as unknown forlorn, and inhospitable as it had to them" (866).