Jeff Ragan > Recent Status Updates

"...what is involved here are two opposing views as to what it means to be people of the Spirit. For the Corinthians it meant 'speaking in tongues' & having wisdom & knowledge...without a commensurate concern for truly Christian behavior. For Paul it meant...to be full of the ...Holy Spirit...to behave as those 'sanctified in Christ Jesus & called to be his holy people' (1:2)...to 'walk in love'" (698).

"'I quit,' said Quentin Daniels 'because, if there are degrees of damnation, the scientist who places his mind in the service of brute force is the longest-range murderer on earth'" (683).

"Moi, je suis l'Eternel et je n'ai pas change. A cause de cela, descendants de Jacob, vous n'avez pas encore ete extermines. Depuis le temps de vos ancetres, vous vous detournez de mes lois et vous n'y obeissez pas. Revenez donc a moi, et moi, je reviendrai a vous, declare l'Eternel, le Seigneur des armees celestes." - Malachie 3:6-7

"...the profoundest question that ethics can ask: is a natural ethic possible? Can morality survive without supernatural belief? Can philosophy, by molding an effective secular moral code, save the civilization which its freedom of thought has threatened to destroy? (372).

"Tongues are fine, he will go on to affirm, provided they are interpreted. But not everyone should speak in tongues when the church assembles for worship. That makes everyone the same, which is like a body with only one part" (689).

"[Silver's] price would sink gradually lower and lower till it fell to its natural price or to what was just sufficient to pay, according to their natural rates, the wages of the labour, the profits of the stock, and the rent of the land, which must e paid in order to bring it from the mine to the market" (87).

"Pousse des cris de joie et sois dans l'allegresse, communaute de Sion, car je viens habiter chez toi, l'Eternel le declare. En ce jour-la, beaucoup de nations s'attacheront a l'Eternel et deviendront mon peuple. Et je demeurerai au milieu de vous tous, et vous saurez que l'Eternel, le Seigneur des armees celestes, m'a envoye vers vous." - Zacharie 3:14-15

"Whatever makes any bad action familiar to the mind, renders its performance by so much the easier. As Marcus Aurelius long ago said, 'Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts'" (318).

"'If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?' This interchange of the sense organs makes it clear that Paul's point is not the 'inferiority' of one to the other. The point is the need for all members; otherwise some function of the body would be missing" (676).

"All work is an act of philosophy. And when men will learn to consider productive work - and that which is its source - as the standard of their moral values,t hey will reach that state of perfection which is the birthright they lost...The source of work? Man's mind, Miss Taggart, man's reasoning mind" (677).

"...l'Eternel ton Dieu est au milieu de toi un guerrier qui te sauve. Il sera transporte de joie a ton sujet et il te renouvellera dans son amour pour toi. Oui, a cause de toi, il poussera des cris de joie, et il exultera." - Sophonie 3:17

"The announcement of the relativity of knowledge did not make men modest, as it should, but disposed every man to consider himself the measure of all things; every clever youth could now feel himself fit to sit in judgment upon the moral code of his people, reject it if he could not understand and approve it, and then be free to rationalize his desires as the virtues of an emancipated soul" (362).

"Paul saw the Spirit as the key to everything in the Christian life. It seems mandatory that such prevail again if there is to be effective Christianity in our day. But let the one who says that not force their own brand of 'spiritual unity' on the church as simply another human machination. Our desperate need is surely for a sovereign work of the Spirit to do among us what all our "programmed unity cannot" (673).

"A moral being is one who is capable of comparing his past and future actions or motives, and of approving or disapproving of them" (311).

"Mais moi, c'est a cause de l'Eternel que je veux me rejouir, j'exulterai de joie a cause du Dieu qui me sauve. L'Eternel, le Seigneur, c'est lui ma force: il rend mes pieds pareils a ceux des biches, il me fait cheminer sur les lieux eleves." - Habaquq 3:18-19

"Labour, it must always be remembered, and not any particular commodity or set of commodities, is the real measure of the value both of silver and of all other commodities" (81).

"Indeed, the truly remarkable feature of this catalogue is the attribution to 'each one' of a whole gamut of supernatural activities in the same matter-of-fact way that contemporary church leaders would list positions on an organizational chart!" (655-6).

"But she knew that there was no meaning in motors or factories or trains, that their only meaning was in man's enjoyment of his life, which they served...for the power and the radiant vision within him which had seen the earth as a place of enjoyment and had known that the work of achieving one's happiness was the purpose, the sanction and the meaning of life" (670).

"Dans l'avenir, il adviendra que la montagne sur laquelle est le Temple de l'Eternel sera fermement etablie a-dessus des montagnes...et les peuples y afflueront. Des nations nombreuses viendront et se diront les unes aux autres: Venez, montons au mont de l'Eternel, au Temple du Dieu de Jacob! Il nous enseignera les voies qu'il a prescrites, nour suivrons ses sentiers" - Michee 3:1-2

"The age of Pericles resembled our own in the variety and disorder of its thought, and in the challenge that it offered to every traditional standard and belief. But no age has ever rivaled that of Pericles in the number and grandeur of its philosophical ideas, or in the vigor and exuberance with which they were debated" (349).

"All of this suggests not only that we do not have here a systematic presentation of 'Spirit gifting,' but also that there is some doubt as to whether the apostle himself had precise and identifiably different manifestations ('gifts') in mind when he wrote these words" (650).

"...of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense or conscience is by far the most important...It is the most noble of all the attributes of man, leading him without a moment's hesitation to risk his life for that of a fellow creature; or after due deliberation, impelled simply by the deep feeling of right or duty, to sacrifice it in some great cause" (304).

"...God's justice...would be compromised if he leniently passed over sin and declared the sinner righteous apart from a substitutionary sacrifice. Only by means of the cross can the heavenly Judge be just and justify believing sinners...Paul not only presents Jesus's death as a ransom that rescued condemned criminals from their deserved sentence; he also portrays Jesus's death as an atoning sacrifice..." (633).

"The basic principle of leadership in the U.S. Army, and particularly in light infantry units, is to always try to make decisions at the lowest possible level of command so they can be made as quickly as possible. On the battlefield, hesitation often breeds defeat" (348).

"Je ramenerai les captifs de mon peuple Israel et ils rebatiront les villes devastees, et les habiteront. Ils planteront des vignes et en boiront le vin, ils etabliront des jardins et ils en mangeront les fruits. Je les planterai sur leur terre et ils ne seront plus arraches a la terre que je leur ai donnee, dit l'Eternel, ton Dieu." - Amos 9:14-15

"Here, we trade achievements, not failures - values, not needs. We're free of one another, yet we all grow together. Wealth, Dagny? What greater wealth is there than to own your life and to spend it on growing? Every living thing must grow. It can't stand still. It must grow or perish" (663).

"The presence of the Spirit in power and gifts makes it easy for God's people to think of the power and gifts as the real evidence of the Spirit's presence. Not so for Paul. The ultimate criterion of the Spirit's activity is the exaltation of Jesus as Lord, which in turn expresses itself in loving concern for others. Whatever takes away from that...begins to move away from Christ..." (645).

"In offensive & defensive tactical actions, commanders fight the enemy throughout the depth of his disposition with fires & with attacks on his flanks & rear. They attack committed & uncommitted forces & synchronize the attack of enemy artillery in depth with close operations. Such in-depth operations degrade the enemy's freedom of action, reduce his flexibility & endurance, & upset his plans & coordination" (337).

"...le jour de l'Eternel est proche dans la val du Verdict. Le soleil et la lune sont obscurcis, les astres perdent leur eclat. Il rugit, l'Eternel, a partir de Sion et, de Jerusalem, il donne de la voix, et le ciel et la terre sont ebranles. Mail l'Eternel est un refuge pour son peuple. Il est une retraite pour les Israelites." - Joel 4:14-16

"Among savage and barbarous nations, a hundredth or little more than a hundredth part of the labour of the whole year will be sufficient to provide them with such clothing and lodging as satisfy the greater part of the people. All the other ninety-nine parts are frequently no more than enough to provide them with food" (71).