Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"The word of the Lord came again to me saying, 'Son of man, prophesy and say, "Thus says the Lord God, Wail, alas for the day! For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near; It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations. And a sword will come upon Egypt, and anguish will be in Ethiopia when the slain fall in Egypt, They take away her wealth, and her foundations are torn down."'" - Eze 30:1-4

"A man who is deeply and truly religious is always a man of wrath. Because he loves God and his fellow men, he hates and despises inhumanity, cruelty and wickedness. Every good man sometimes prophesies like Nahum" (322).

"On October 8, 1942, all American whiskey production officially halted. The whiskey companies still owned plenty of stocks aging in warehouses, but when would they be able to distill again? Despite promises, they were not granted whiskey production time until 1945" (143).

"'In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you, Yet you are not clean, You will not be cleansed from your filthiness again, Until I have spent My wrath on you. I, the Lord, have spoken; it is coming and I shall act. I shall not relent, and I shall not pity, and I shall not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I shall judge you,' declares the Lord God." - Ezekiel 24:13-14

"Master Tseng said, The man to whom one could with equal confidence entrust an orphan not yet fully grown or the sovereignty of a whole State, whom the advent of no emergency however great could upset - would such a one be a true gentleman? He I think would e a true gentleman indeed" (126).

"But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and...practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live...All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live. Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked...rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?" - Eze 18:21-23

"In the nation's early years, participation in political affairs was considered a duty and an honor, but not a way of life. Public-spirited men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson donated large periods of their lives to national service, but always considered themselves first and foremost private citizens and eagerly anticipated their return to private life" (86).

"When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I shall give them one heart, and shall put a new spirit within them. And I shall take the hart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God." - Ezekiel 11:18-20

"Historically the Chinese did not draw a sharp distinction between domestic and external affairs. Their 'image of world order was no more than a corollary of the Chinese internal order and thus an extended projection of the Chinese civilizational identity' which 'was presumed to reproduce itself in a concentrically larger expandable circle as the correct cosmic order.' (234).

"And as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me. Then He said to me, 'Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. And I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children...'" - Ezekiel 2:2-4

"Tyrants to men are rebels to God" (77).

"It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and be silent since He has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, perhaps there is hope. Let him give his cheek to the smiter; let him be filled with reproach. For the Lord will not reject forever, for if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness." - Lam 3:27-32

"At a distance of some 50 light-years, this [The Virgo Cluster] is the closest big cluster to us. It may contain as many as 3,000 galaxies in all.

"It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom, and by His understanding He stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth the wind from His storehouses," - Jeremiah 51:15-16

"For Isaiah, then, mispat is a complex idea involving Yahweh, his nature and acts, and his requirements of all his creatures, but especially of his covenant people. He manifests good judgment, and in that judgment brings justice. He longs for the same in his people. In his judgment he will establish mispat in the earth through his servant" (310).

"But they have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in My law or My statutes, which I have set before you and before your fathers. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I am going to set My face against you for woe, even to cut off all Judah.' - Jeremiah 44:10-11

"In Irving Hirsch's 1931 book Manufacture of Whiskey, Brandy and Cordials, the distiller wrote: 'To make a straight bourbon use a sour mash made up from 50 percent Indian corn, 30 percent rye, and 20 percent barley malt'" (133).

"The Master said, Set your heart upon the Way, support yourself by its power, lean upon Goodness, seek distraction in the arts" (116).

"Now the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, 'The Lord your God promised this calamity against this place; and the Lord has brought it on and done just as He promised. Because you people sinned against the Lord and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing happened to you.'" - Jeremiah 40:2-3

"Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., in many ways was the perfect choice to restore America's broken confidence after Richard Nixon. Straightforward, honest, a man of recognized decency, he traced his personal qualities back to his Midwestern childhood" (79).

"And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity...and I will pardon all their iniquities...by which they have transgressed against Me. And it shall be to Me a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear of all the good that I do for them, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it." - Jeremiah 33:8-9

"The possession of one's own boat certainly enables one to visit many outlandish places, yet in some cases the need to look after the boat may prevent one seeing much of them" (614).

"Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you shall take up your tambourines, and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers. Again you shall plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy them. For there shall be a day when watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall call out, 'Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.'" - Jeremiah 31:4-6

"The end of the Cold War, the increasing interaction between Asia and America, and the relative decline in American power thus brought to the surface the clash of cultures between the United States and Japan and other Asian societies and enabled the latter to resist American pressure."

"Thus says the Lord, 'Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.'" - Jeremiah 22:3

"God foresaw the wickedness of it, and yet promised he would never drown it any more; for he deals not with us according to our sins. It is owing to God's goodness and faithfulness, not to any reformation of the world, that it has not often been deluged, and that it is not deluged now. As the old world was ruined to be a monument of justice, so this world remains to this day, a monument of mercy" (71).

"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds." - Jeremiah 17:9-10

"The exuberant, indeed, superlative language of the ideal future prepares the way for the revelation of God in Jesus Christ in whom the true relief from oppression was to be achieved. The startling imagery of a universe made new set the tone for the ultimate consummation of God's covenant program as the prophets and apostles of the early church saw it..." (300).

"The third largest constellation, Ursa Major, is the most familiar northern constellation because it contains the conspicuous star pattern known as the Big Dipper, or in Europe, as the Plow" (84).

"There is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and great is Thy name in might. Who would not fear Thee, O King of the nations? Indeed it is thy due! For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like Thee. But they are altogether stupid and foolish in their discipline of delusion - their idol is wood!...But the Lord is the true God and the everlasting King." - Jeremiah 10:6-10