Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"As for Goodness - you yourself desire rank and standing; then help others to get rank and standing. You want to turn your own merits to account; then help others to turn theirs to account" (114).

"An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?" - Jeremiah 5:30-31

"Harding served as state senator and then as lietenant (sic) governor of Ohio. He had striking good looks and a faculty for pleasing people, qualities that helped him win a seat in the U.S. Senate, where he served six years, though with little distinction" (68).

"Go & proclaim these words toward the north & say, 'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord; 'I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,' declares the Lord; 'I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God & have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, & you have not obeyed My voice,'" - Jeremiah 3:12-13

"The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power. The problem for Islam is not the CIA or the U.S. Department of Defense. It is the West, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the universality of their culture..." (217-8).

"Thus says the Lord, 'Heaven is My throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,' declares the Lord. 'But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.'" - Isaiah 66:1-2

"Two days of gale conditions damp the spirits and impair the efficiency of most crews; the incessant whine of the wind, the hiss and surge of great seas breaking alongside, at length begin to daunt even the least apprehensive. The general uproar, the ship's motion, and the strain of waiting for something to happen, make sleep hard to come by. Knowing that it is useless I never even try..." (607).

"...outward judgments, though they may terrify and restrain men, yet cannot of themselves sanctify and renew them; the grace of God must work with those judgments" (68).

"Seek the Lord while He may be found Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon." - Isaiah 55:6-7

"Many businesses seemed to have the inside political track, giving them an advantage with investors and banks. The Hammond Distillery announced its plans the day after Indiana Attorney General Phillip Lutz, Jr. ruled legal the incorporation of distilleries...Its owners included Julius P. Smientanka, a former Chicago-based internal revenue collector" (119).

"Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his Servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God." - Isaiah 50:10

"Of Tzu-ch'an the Master said that in him were to be found four of the virtues that belong to the Way of the true gentleman.
In his private conduct he was courteous, in serving his master he was punctilious, in providing for the needs of the people he gave them even more than their due; in exacting service from the people, he was just" (102).

Garfield "was one of he best prepared men ever to have reached the presidency, with a thorough grasp of every aspect of government. But he was soon calling the office 'a bleak mountain,' in large part because of frustrations due to office seekers. 'My God! What is there in this place that a man should ever want to get into it?'" (60).

"I believe that Christ the man in his conscious mind was engulfed by pain and suffering, almost overcome by it, and yet united with his human unconscious mind, Christ the all-knowing God thought of every single person for whom he was making this sacrifice. As he screamed in pain from the cross, He thought of you and He thought of me, and I am convinced that He will tell us that one day face to face" (408-9).

"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth Justice." - Isaiah 42:1-3

"Natural population growth is low in the U.S. & virtually zero in Europe. Migrants have high fertility rates &...account for most future population growth in Western societies. As a result, Westerners increasingly fear 'that they are now being invaded not by armies & tanks but by migrants who speak other languages, worship other gods, belong to other cultures, & , they fear, will...threaten their way of life'" (200).

"Do you not know?...The everlasting God...does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary...Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary." - Isaiah 40:28-31

"Our Saviour tells us that till the very day that the flood came they were eating and drinking (Luke xvii. 26, 27); they were drowned in security and sensuality before they were drowned in these waters, crying Peace, peace, to themselves, deaf and blind to all divine warnings. In this posture death surprised them" (63).

"Behold, a king will reign righteously, and princes will rule justly, and each will be like a refuge from the wind, and a shelter from the storm. Like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded, and ears of those who hear will listen. And the mind of the hasty will discern the truth..." - Isaiah 32:1-4

"I readily and, I trust, feelingly acknowledge the duty incumbent on us all as men and citizens...to provide for those who, in the mysterious order of Providence, are subject to want and to disease of the body and mind; but I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States" (55).

"Unless, like the traditional sailor, one has a wife in every port, most ports of the world may be left without regret" (602).

"Only certainty gives courage. The only way my disciples and other followers could have withstood the sword that came down upon them for the first three centuries that the church existed, a time of persecution beyond comprehension, was to have unwavering certainty that I was alive" (399-400).

"Therefore thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundations, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. And I will make justice the measuring line, & righteousness the level; Then hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, & the waters shall overflow the secret place, & your covenant with death shall be cancelled.'" - Is 28:16-18

"Non-Western states draw the obvious lessons from the Gulf War. For the North Korean military these were: 'Don't let the Americans build up their forces; don't let them put in air power; don't let them take the initiative; don't let them fight a war with low U.S. casualties.' For a top Indian military official the lesson was even more explicit: 'Don't fight the United States unless you have nuclear weapons'" (186-7).

"Now it will come about in that day that the glory of Jacob will fade, and the fatness of his flesh will become lean...For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants and set them with vine slips of a strange god...But the harvest will be a heap in a day of sickliness and incurable pain." - Isaiah 17:4, 10-11.

"Orion, the most magnificent constellation in the heavens; straddling the celestial equator, Orion is equally familiar to observers in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Its pattern of bright stars is distinctive and can readily be visualized as the figure of a mighty hunter, with a club raised ready to strike in one hand, and a shield in the other" (78).

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. - Is 9:6-7

"He was a hero who seemed to fit his times exactly - a humble, honest, clean-cut kind of man the country could feel good about. 'I am not the hero,' Eisenhower said in his home town of Abilene, Kansas. 'I am the symbol of the heroic men you people, and all the United States, have sent to war'" (36).