Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"Theirs may be called a good old age, First, That are old and healthful, not loaded with such distempers as make them weary of life. Secondly, That are old and holy, old disciples...whose hoary head is found in the way of righteousness...old and useful, old and exemplary for godliness; theirs is indeed a good old age" (104).

"Jimmy Carter's presidency was undone by the hostage crisis in Iran, by a national oil crisis, and by soaring inflation. But perhaps more than anything else, it was his independent-mindedness that left him alienated from both Republicans and Democrats" (159).

"And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, 'Take it; this is My body.' And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them; and they all drank from it. And He said to them, 'This is My blood of the covenant, which is to be shed on behalf of many." - Mark 14:22-24

"Fault line wars are ended not by disinterested individuals, groups, or organizations but by interested secondary and tertiary parties who have rallied to the support of their kin and have the capability to negotiate agreements with their counterparts, on the one hand, and to induce their kin to accept those agreements, on the other" (292).

"Peter began to say to Him, 'Behold, we have left everything and followed You.' Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age...along with persecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life.'" - Mark 10:28-30

"Under the inspiration of the Spirit, Peter found in the miracle of Pentecost God's announcement that what Joel had foreseen was coming to pass in the infant Church...The messianic age discerned by Joel and others was at hand. The Church has been recruited to carry on the prophetic ministry and longs for the restoration of Jews to that service...Then Joel's and Obadiah's faith will have become sight..." (380).

"All his life, Hayes was hardworking, methodical, and impeccably honest - so pristine, James Garfield once said, 'no nickname can be pinned to him.' He saw himself as nothing more than a non-partisan public servant, intent on cleansing the taints that had infected his own party during the Grant administration" (148).

"And the apostles gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while.' (For there were many people coming and going, and hey did not even have time to eat.) And they went way in the boat to a lonely place by themselves" - Mark 6:30-32

"Nonetheless, despite vodka chipping away at bourbon shares, bourbon was still the number-one-selling spirit in the United States" (180).

"...the lessons of the Bosnian war are: first, primary participants in fault line wars can count on receiving help, which may be substantial, from their civilizational kin; second, such help can significantly affect the course of the war; and third, governments and people of one civilization do not expend blood or treasure to help people of another civilization fight a fault line war" (289).

"And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" - Mt. 28:17-20

"The Master said, 'To go too far is as bad as not to go far enough'" (147).

"And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all you soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. And a second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" - Matthew 22:35-39

"As we have opportunity we must do good to all men. Our charity must be extensive, as opportunity offers itself. Wherever God gives life, we must not grudge the help we can give to support it. God does good to the just and unjust, and so must we" (96).

"And if your brother sins, go & reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; & if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile & a tax-gatherer." - Matthew 18:15-17

"This was the chaotic state of affairs in America when the country paused to celebrate its seventy-fourth Independence Day. Just sixteen months into office, an exhausted President Taylor sat under a roasting sun for hours during a Fourth of July observance. Then he downed large quantities of tainted milk and raw fruit and vegetables. Stricken by acute gastroenteritis...lead to his death in less than a week" (144).

"Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?...But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." - Matthew 12:25-28

"No matter what direction the wind outside may be, in a fjord it blows up or down, usually in the opposite direction to which one wants to go. Even in the sheltered waters of the fjord a strong wind against an equally strong tide raised a nasty sea against which we could make little or no headway. With the engine going we were no better off, for the propeller spent half its time out of the water" (640).

"Toward the end of his term in office, Adams became the first president to live in the new Executive Mansion in the capital city of Washington. And there, the man who chose not to be an ordained minister offered a simple prayer for future presidents. 'I pray heaven to bestow the best blessings on this house and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof'" (138).

"Not every one who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" - Matthew 7:21-23

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze...so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. Bur for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall." - Malachi 4:1-2

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze...so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. Bur for you who fear My name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall." - Malachi 4:1-2

"The lesson of all these barbed assurances is that the exiles' hope for the future must be matched my moral responsibility in the present. God wants to be their savior, but they have to make even now an ethical choice for or against God and between future life or death" (366).

"Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst...And many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And the Lord will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem." - Zechariah 2:10-12

"'No advertisement of distilled spirits shall contain an illustration of a woman unless such illustration is dignified, modest and in good taste, and no such advertisement shall depict a woman in provocative dress or situation,' according to the Distilled Spirits Institute's 'Code of Good Practice.' Despite this edict, distillers still used scantily clothed women for their advertisements..." (161).

"Is it time for you...to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?"...thus says the Lord of hosts, "Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied...You look for much, but...it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away Why?...Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house." - Haggai 4-9

"In wars between cultures, culture loses" (272).

"Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger." - Zephaniah 2:3

"Johnson dominated. He got up so close, especially to members of his staff, it was uncomfortable. Bodies actually touched. Breath intermingled. Who could stand up to him, his six feet four inches bent forward like a weapon, his laughter so intimate that the staffer would never forget it and from that moment on would always feel he owed the President something" (125).

"Lord, I have heard the report about The and I fear. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy." - Habakkuk 3:2