Friday Quotes XXVI

We must be with him in his Word, we must follow him even if we are not sure of the final destination, we must live by his teaching (which means we must know those teachings well), and we must imitate him whenever we can. In other words everything becomes secondary in life to being like him. ~ Ray Vander Laan I am not sure how I feel about Laan, he assumes that 1st century Rabbinical culture is very close to the kind written in the Talmud two hundred years later. I have read one source that disagrees, I think. But Laan is right on the principle, even if not on the history.

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. ~ C.S. Lewis Yes I watch cartoons and read comics. Lewis would too.

Nobody writes jokes in base 13. ~ Douglas Adams

Mega-Wombats

A pouch that could fit an adult human being? Awesome!

Friday Quotes XXV

May you be covered in your Rabbi’s dust and may you thirstily drink his words. ~ Mishnah The disciples did not want to just learn from Jesus, they wanted to be Jesus. Peter walked on the water, because if his Rabbi could, he wanted to be able to do everything his Rabbi could. He may have sank, not because he doubted his Rabbi, but because he doubted himself.

Discipline yourself to study Torah, for you do not acquire it by inheritance. ~ Mishnah (Avot 2:12)Same goes with the Bible. You do not get the Torah as a Jew and you do not get the Bible at salvation.

If [the student] learns Torah and does not go over it again and again, he is like a man who sows without reaping. (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 99a) For "learns" read memorize. By comparision, reading scripture once is like sowing without reaping.

There doesn't exist any Jewish child who doesn't know by heart the history from Adam to Zerubbabel [i.e., from the beginning to the end of the Bible]. ~ Jerome Jerome learned his hebrew in Bethlehem (lucky dog), he would listen to children walking reciting their lessons they memorized.

Above all we pride ourselves on the education of our children, and regard as the most essential task in life the observance of our laws and of the pious practices based thereupon, which we have inherited. ~ Josephus (Against Apion 1:60, Loeb ed.) The Jews felt that their schools were more important than their synagogues.

Things that Frustrate me and Please me

Things that frustrate me...

1. Topical preaching is almost always more entertaining than exegetical preaching.

2. Following Christ to the disciples meant memorizing every word that Jesus said. Today when following Christ you don't have to read every word of Christ.

3. The more people read their Bibles the less unified they become.

4. If so little revelation is needed to live the Christian life and even less is needed for salvation, one wonders why God used the limited space in the Bible for a word like propitiation.

5. People will defend the free will of man, but when they mess up they defend that the soveriegnity of God will not allow for their mistake to impact the church negatively.

Things that please me...

1. God's excellence/majesty is by experience. Like the taste of honey, one cannot find it in a book, even His book.

2. God knew exactly what He was getting into when He chose us.

3. God sees us. Jehovah Roi, baby!

4. It is the Holy Spirit that touches the heart, not me.

5. God wants to bless and connect with us.

6. Worship is more than talk. God is wiser than King Lear in Act One.

TNM: Vaccines & Autism: Controversy Persists, But Why?

TNM:Positive Thinking: Questioning Its Power

Martin Luther and the changeling

The Story of a Changeling at Dessau

Eight years ago [in the year 1532] at Dessau, I, Dr. Martin Luther, saw and touched a changeling. It was twelve years old, and from its eyes and the fact that it had all of its senses, one could have thought that it was a real child. It did nothing but eat; in fact, it ate enough for any four peasants or threshers. It ate, shit, and pissed, and whenever someone touched it, it cried. When bad things happened in the house, it laughed and was happy; but when things went well, it cried. It had these two virtues. I said to the Princes of Anhalt: "If I were the prince or the ruler here, I would throw this child into the water--into the Molda that flows by Dessau. I would dare commit homicidium on him!" But the Elector of Saxony, who was with me at Dessau, and the Princes of Anhalt did not want to follow my advice. Therefore, I said: "Then you should have all Christians repeat the Lord's Prayer in church that God may exorcise the devil." They did this daily at Dessau, and the changeling child died in the following year.... Such a changeling child is only a piece of flesh, a massa carnis, because it has no soul.

It seems likely that this Changeling was a child with autism.

Changelings from the Devil

Changelings and killcrops are laid in the place of legitimate children by Satan in order to plague mankind. He often pulls certain girls into the water, impregnates them, and keeps them with him until they deliver their children; afterward he places these children in cradles, taking the legitimate children away. But such changelings, it is said, do not live more than eighteen or nineteen years.

The Killcrop of Halberstadt

A man who lived near Halberstadt in Saxony had a killcrop who had sucked his mother and five additional wet nurses dry. Further, he was eating a great deal and behaving very strangely. The man was told that he should take the child on a pilgrimage to Hockelstadt to praise the Virgin Mary and to have him weighed there. The peasant followed this advice and set forth, carrying the child in a basket. But when he came to a bridge over some water, a devil in the water beneath the bridge called out: "Killcrop! Killcrop!" The child in the basket, who had never yet spoken a word, answered: "Ho! Ho!" This startled the peasant. The devil in the water then asked: "Where are you going?" The killcrop said: "I'm on my way to Hockelstadt to Our Dear Lady, to have myself weighed there so that I may grow." When the peasant heard the changeling speak, the first time this had ever happened, he became angry and threw the child into the water, basket and all. Then the two devils came together, shouted "Ho, ho, ha!," played with each other, rolled around with each other, and disappeared.

Satan plagues mankind with such changelings and killcrops by substituting them for real children. Satan has the power to exchange children, placing a devil in the cradle in the place of a child. This devil will suck and eat like an animal, but it will not grow. Thus it is said that changelings and killcrops do not live longer than eighteen or nineteen years.

It happens often, that babies are exchanged during their first six weeks, and that devils lay themselves in their place, making themselves detestable by shitting, eating, and crying more than any ten other children. The parents get no rest from such filthy beasts. The mothers are sucked dry and are no longer able to nurse.... However, changeling children should be baptized, because they cannot always be recognized as such during their first year.[1]

Non-Mormons go to heaven

The LDS church teaches that non-Mormons go to heaven. For starters you have Joseph Smith's vision where he saw Alvin in the Celestial Kingdom. The Lord told Joseph Smith,

7 Thus came the avoice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God;

8 Also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom;

9 For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.

10 And I also beheld that all children who die before they arrive at the years of accountability are saved in the celestial kingdom of heaven.[1]

Which heaven you wind up in is dependent on the depth of your salvation.[2]

Here is even a group of LDS Mormons discussing this.
http://www.askamormon.com/do-non-mormons-go-to-heaven.html

Non-mormons going to heaven has been a part of Mormonism for over a century.

I’ve always taken it as a given that Mormonism’s view of the afterlife shuffle has always been more universalizing than most of the other alternatives. Our formulation of heaven intuitively accommodates for the varying levels of understanding people can achieve in this life and in the spirit world: instead of a binary — heaven and hell — we have glories of heaven. So, we can safely say that although most people aren’t Mormons, most people won’t go to “Hell,” or at least, not the kind of Hell that many non-LDS religious people want to posit for nonbelievers of their religions. Regardless of people’s disagreements with the particulars of exaltation for the celestial aspirants, things actually look pretty good for the rest of us non-celestial people. [3]

A movie quote from 15th century Venice

Do you know what my daughter's nurse told her today? That in a girl's voice lies temptation. A known fact. Eloquence in a woman means promiscuity. Promiscuity of the mind...leads to promiscuity of the body. She doesn't believe her yet, but she will. [1]

Juan Enriquez: Will our kids be a different species?

Diane Kelly: What we didn't know about penis anatomy

Friday Quotes XXIV (Defining Worship, Preachers need to study)

Piper and the bottom half are worship definitions. The rest is encouragement for pastors to constantly study.

The essence of worship is a being satisfied in God and cherishing of Christ as gain. Romans 12:1-2 are not saying anything different. ~ John Piper

Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word and signifieth good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that maketh a man's heart glad and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy. ~ William Tyndale

A resistance to systematic theology reflects a lack of discipline or a lack of confidence in the consistency of God's Word. We are to set out the great doctrines of the faith as revealed in the Bible--and do so in a way that helps to bring all of God's truth into a comprehensive focus. The preacher must be ready to answer the great questions of his age from the authoritative treasury of God's truth, and to teach, defend, and proclaim the faith "once for all delivered to the saints" ~ Al Mohler

Study the Bible, dear brethren, through and through, with all the helps that you can possibly obtain: remember that the appliances now within the reach of ordinary Christians are much more extensive than they were in our fathers' days, and therefore you must be greater biblical scholars if you would keep in front of your hearers. Intermeddle with all knowledge, but above all things meditate day and night in the law of the Lord. ~ Charles Spurgeon

Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God's attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are. ~ J. I. Packer

The pastor must study, study, study, or he will not grow, or even live, as a true workman for Christ. ~ Thomas Murphy

The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies, but its obedience. ~ Oswald Chambers

Lawful worship consists in obedience alone. ~ John Calvin

Community worship and lives lived as living sacrifices serving God and our neighbour are a seamless continuum of response to the being, character and deeds of God who desires that worship be manifested in caring for one’s neighbour in all aspects of life. ~ Florinda Toledo-Juarez

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin. ~ "Readings in St. John's Gospel" - William Temple's (1881-1944) This is my favorite definition.

For more read the following:

[Bible.org]

Friday Quotes XXIII

"Every definition is dangerous." ~ Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

It is an illusion to seek the company of sinners on the pretence of reforming them, or of converting them; it is far more to be feared that they will spread their poison to us. ~ St. Gregory Nazianzen, died 389 This is one of the fears that keeps me up nights. Supposedly my study of athiesm is supposed to make me into an athiest. If I read the Greek Fathers, I am supposed to become a universalist. (Sorry Gregory) I want to read God Delusion and the Mormon Presidents this year. I pray that St. Gregory is not talking about me.

"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England." ~ Benjamin Franklin

"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity." ~ John Adams

"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. ~ Thomas Jefferson

TN2M: The Curious Sex Lives Of Animals

Friday Quotes XXII

"I shall multiply my days as the hol, the phoenix" ~ possible translation of Job 29:18[1]

Neither the earth produces me, nor the heavens, but only the wings of fire. ~ according to rabbinical tradition these words are written on the phoenix's wing

Let us consider the marvelous sign which is seen in the regions of the east, that is, in the parts about Arabia. There is a bird, which is named the phoenix. This, being the only one of its kind, liveth for five hundred years; and when it hath now reached the time of its dissolution that it should die, it maketh for itself a coffin of frankincense and myrrh and the other spices, into the which in the fullness of time it entereth, and so it dieth. But, as the flesh rotteth, a certain worm is engendered, which is nurtured from the moisture of the dead creature and putteth forth wings. Then, when it is grown lusty, it taketh up that coffin where are the bones of its parent, and carrying them journeyeth from the country of Arabia even unto Egypt, to the place called the City of the Sun; and in the daytime in the sight of all, flying to the altar of the Sun, it layeth them thereupon; and this done, it setteth forth to return. So the priests examine the registers of the times, and they find that it hath come when the five hundredth year is completed. Do we then think it to be a great and marvelous thing, if the Creator of the universe shall bring about the resurrection of them that have served Him with holiness in the assurance of a good faith, seeing that He showeth to us even by a bird the magnificence of His promise? ~ 1 Clement 25:1-26:1

God even in His own Scripture says: "The righteous shall flourish like the phoenix;" that is, shall flourish or revive, from death, from the grave-to teach you to believe that a bodily substance may be recovered even from the fire. Our Lord has declared that we are "better than many sparrows": well, if not better than many a phoenix too, it were no great thing. But must men die once for all, while birds in Arabia are sure of a resurrection? ~ Tertullian - On the Resurrection of the Flesh