Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. The passionate commitment of the Lord Almighty will guarantee this!" - Is 9:6-7

"Does this apply to the individuals Jacob and Esau or simply to the nations springing from Jacob and Esau? It must be observed that in Malachi 1:1-5 the peoples of Israel and Edom are distinctly in view" (20). Yet Murray goes on to import meanings beyond what Paul and Scripture expressly communicate.

"In the last days, the Temple of the Lord...will become the most important place on earth. People from all over the world will go there to worship. Many nations will come & say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Israel. There he will teach us his ways, so that we may obey him.' For in those days the Lord's teaching & his word will go out from Jerusalem." - Isaiah 2:2-3

"The conquests of Alexander the Great signaled the dawn of a new era for the Near East. The center of international power shifted from East to West, first to Greece and later to Rome" (174).

"How beautiful are your sandaled feet, O queenly maiden. Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a skilled craftsman. Your navel is as delicious as a goblet filled with wine. Your belly is lovely, like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. Your breasts are like twin fawns of a gazelle." - Song of Songs 7:1-3

"Within decades all four of these powers [Neo-Babylonians, Egypt, Medes, and Lydia] would be conquered by a new force - the Persians - resulting in the formation of the largest empire the Near East ever produced: The Persian Empire. For the Jews these changes meant an end to the Exile and restoration to their ancestral home" (164).

"God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. So I concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as the can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God." - Ecc 3:11-13

"Currents, the compass, the helmsmen, even the navigator, may be responsible for these anomalies. It is not, however, for the navigator to accept responsibility for them...or he may sap what confidence the crew have in him. Attack is the best form of defence. A few remarks about the impossibility of navigating the ship if it is not steered straight will restore his own confidence & subdue & mystify the crew" (433).

"The destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. marks a great watershed in Jewish history. The loss of independence, deportations of significant segments of the population, & the apparent end of the Davidic Dynasty provoked an unprecedented crisis. What now was the relationship between God and His people? What did the destruction of Jerusalem with its temple mean for the physical & spiritual destiny of the Jews?" (158).

"Life brings us many unfair judgments and painful injustices. By means of laws and government, our fallen world can provide some semblance of justice, but these institutions still leave many wrongs unaccounted for...Government leaders may be wise and powerful, but they cannot see and understand as the Lord does" (822).

"The Mongols proved better warriors than administrators, and the successors of Kublai were forced to restore the examination system and to utilize Chinese capacity in government...Once more the Chinese married their conquerors, civilized them, and overthrew them" (767).

"As I stepped clear of this giant slate, I looked behind me over my right shoulder and-looked straight into the tigress's face...Two thoughts flashed through my mind: one, that it was up to me to make the first move, and the other, that the move would have to be made in such a manner as not to alarm the tigress or make her nervous" (234).

"[God's] ways cannot be fully understood by humans. Mysteries about God surround us at every turn, and even though we have received newness in Christ, we do not have all the answers about God. Much remains hidden, and it is our privilege to look into these things and discover small truths about God" (819).

"You find the core principle of self-determination enshrined in the Declaration of Independence of the 13 colonies and the later Texas Declaration of Independence, which is this: governments govern only by the consent of the governed" (46).

"In that same year, 605 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar took the throne of Babylon upon the death of his father - an event that , as much as any other, marked the beginning of a new empire: the Neo-Babylonian Empire. In the process, the fate of Palestine had been sealed" (153).

"Texans remember those who perished at Goliad as a warning that the price of surrender is often higher than the sacrifice of honor" (40).

"Oh God who guides us, we praise you for your direction. Help us to be attentive to your direction as we continue on our life's journey. Forgive us when we foolishly attempt to follow our own paths, and refresh us when we are weary and discouraged. Amen." (816).

"With these distinctive feet it would have been easy to pick the man-eater out of a hundred dead tigers. The animal before me was...not the man-eater. When I conveyed this information to the assembled throng of people there was a murmur of strong dissent...of what value was the evidence of the feet, for the feet of all tigers were alike!" (223).

"Your legacy is the wisdom you have gained, the people you have influenced, and the convictions you modeled which inspire subsequent generations. Leaving a living legacy is more important than leaving a monument" (4).

"O Lord, who has so loved my soul, make me a lover of souls. Fill me with an unwearied, unconditional love, one that perceives keenly and endures strongly. Let such love enable others to do and be their best...Take from me the spirit of nervousness and self-absorption. Being inwardly cured...may I be fit to love, steady to persevere. Let no sickness or accident...make me ungracious to those about me..." (813).

"Terrain is a neutral factor in that both sides can exploit it. Making effective use of the ground is a vital skill for combat troops and their commanders, and most armies train in specific tactics to take high ground, make use of woods and so forth" (102).

"A woman who is beautiful but lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig's snout." - Proverbs 11:22

"But what of chapters 9 to 11? It might seem that there is discontinuity in this portion of the epistle and its length appears to aggravate the question raised. It is only as we fail to discern or overlook the relation that these chapters sustain to the thesis of this epistle that any thought of irrelevance or discontinuity is entertained" (xii).

"Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and be wise! Even though they have no prince, governor, or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter." - Pr. 6:6-8

"Experience had shown that I need not try to collect a crew of seasoned yachtsmen or even a nucleus of such...It was not so much that experienced hands knew better than to embark on Mischief, but rather that such men either sail their own boats or crew for their friends. My recruits are found mainly among young chaps with a taste for adventure who have not yet settled down..." (430).

"Emma ne tarda pas a emerveiller Bovary par son bon sens pratique. Il allait falloir prendre des informations, verifier les hypotheques, voir s'il y avait lieu a une licitation ou a une liquidation. Elle citait des termes techniques...et continuellement exagerait les embarras de la succession...elle lui montra le modele d'une autorisation generale pour gerer et administrer ses affaires" (289).

"Nature, which is so cruel in China, lavishing death with cold and flood, was accepted stoically as the supreme god of the Chinese, and received from them not merely religious sacrifice, but the worship of their philosophy, their literature and their art" (754).

"The century following the fall of Israel in 722 B.C. was the high-water mark for the Assyrian Empire. Assyria reached the zenith of power during the reigns of Esarhaddon (681-669 B.C.) and Ashurbanipal (669-627 B.C.) before experiencing a rapid collapse in the late seventh century" (142).

"Then I saw a new heaven & a new earth, for the first heaven & the first earth had passed away...I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, & he will live with them. They will be his people, & God himself will be..their God." Rev 21:1-3

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." - 1 John 1:5-7