From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colours of autumn to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Incomparable, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
1. Anyone can contribute10 points for whoever can guess which two comments are mine...
2. You must stay on topic
3. You must use an alias
4. You may play "devil's advocate" if you wish
5. You may use several identities, each arguing a different point if you wish
6. You must not use bad language
7. You must not get annoyed at anyone
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my Light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest draughts and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strifings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand
In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love, and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For every sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.
There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.
No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.
Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name
Blessed be your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name
Blessed be your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be your name
Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be your name
Every blessing you pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be your name
Romans 5:1-5 - Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through out Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 8:18, 28-30 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us... And we know hat for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 8:31-39 - What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see
'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Saviour has ransomed me
And like a flood his mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing Grace
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God who called me here below
Will be forever mine
When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.
The Sony Reader has other selling points; above all, its potential to reduce the clutter of books. For me, the perfect advertisement for this device would be a picture of my bedstand without its ever-present leaning tower of literature. More reading, the tagline would say, fewer books.
If, today, I threw out all the books in my house that could be uploaded for free onto a Sony Reader, at least one of my bookcases (out of five or six) could be retired. What I'd really like is to keep only as many books as could be squeezed into one or two bookcases.
I have always thought that good Books are the best part of a man's Furniture in his House, and the best Ornaments for Ladies Closets.
Lord of all creation
Of water, earth and sky
The heavens are your tabernacle
Glory to the Lord on high
Early in the morning
I will celebrate the light
When I stumble in the darkness
I will call your name by night
God of wonders beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares your majesty
You are holy, holy
Lord of heaven and earth
Hallelujah to the Lord of heaven and earth
The splendour of the King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice, let all the earth rejoice
He wraps himself in light and darkness tries to hide
Trembles at his voice, trembles at his voice
And age to age he stands and time is in his hands
Beginning and the end, beginning and the end
The Godhead, three in one, Father, Spirit Son
The Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and the Lamb
How great is our God
Sing with me, how great is our God!
And all will see how great, how great is our God!
You're the name above all names
You are worthy of all praise
My heart will sing, how great is our God!
Rock of Ages cleft for me
Hide me now, my refuge be
Let the water and the blood
From your wounded side which flowed
Be for sin the double cure
Cleanse me from its guilt and power
Not the labours of my hands
Can fulfil your law's demands
Could my zeal no respite know
Could my tears forever flow
All for sin could not atone
You must save, and You alone
Nothing in my hand I bring
Simply to your cross I cling
Naked come to you for dress
Helpless look to you for grace
Stained by sin to You I cry
Wash me, Saviour, or I die
While I draw this fleeting breath
When my eyelids close in death
When I soar through realms unknown
Bow before the judgment throne
Hide me then, my refuge be
Rock of ages, cleft for me
You are not a God created by human hands
You are not a God dependent on any mortal man
You are not a God in need of anything we can give
And by your plan that's just the way it is
You're the only God whose power none can contend
You're the only God whose name and praise will never end
You're the only God who's worthy of everything we can give
And by your plan that's just the way it is
Unchangeable, unshakeable
Unstoppable, that's what you are
And you are God alone from before time began
And you are on your throne, and you are God alone
And right now in the good times and bad
You are on your throne and you are God alone
What to say, Lord?
It's you who gave me life and
I can't explain just how much you mean to me now
That you have saved me Lord
I give all that I am to you
That everyday I can be a light that shines your name
Everyday Lord, I'll learn to stand upon your word
And I pray that I may come to know you more
That you would guide me in every single step I take
That everyday I can be your light unto the world
Everyday, it's you I'll live for
Everyday, I'll follow after you
Everyday, I'll walk with you my Lord
It's you I'll live for everyday
When I leave this earth there's nothing I'll take with me
Except for Jesus Christ: the pardon that he bought me
All that is my gain for him I'll count it my loss
And if I ever boast it will be only in the cross
Whether I'm in need or whether I have plenty
Whether I have food or whether I go hungry
If I stand with friends or all around desert me
I have learned to be content in every circumstance
In God and God alone I find my joy and satisfaction
For God and God alone I live or die
For me to live is Christ, to die is gain
Another day upon the earth: one more to shout his name
And if I die, my death won't be in vain
For whether by my life or death, I'll glorify his name.
1:18-21 - Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
3:7-11 - But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
4:10-13 - I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
It's always good to spread out celebrations. My birthday was three weeks ago, and I was still receiving presents last night. My dear friends Donna and Liz gave me a $50 iTunes Gift Card, along with a very stylish Diana Ferrari handbag. And the very lovely Sue bought me some perfume - Curious, by Britney Spears.
You don't need a man by your side to validate you as a woman. You already are loved and valued. You're good enough exactly as you are. Do you believe this? Because it's true. You have limitless worth and value. If you embrace this truth, it will affect every area of life, especially your relationship with men.
You are worth dying for.
Your worth does not come from your body, your mind, your work, what you produce, what you put out, how much money you make. Your worth does not come from whether or not you have a man. Your worth does not come from whether or not men notice you. You have inestimable worth that comes from your creator.
You will continue to be tempted in a thousand different ways not to believe this. The temptation will be to go searching for your worth and validity from places other than your creator.
Especially from men.
But you don't have to give yourself away to earn a man's love. You're better than that. You're already loved.
Who moves to America and brings a kilt? Did his mother say, "Farewell, son. Make something of yourself in the New World. Have you packed your native costume, just in case?" Just in case of what? Just in case we decide to re-invade Canada? Just in case he finds a girl with a thing for men in frocks with no knickers? Just in case there's an England-versus-Scotland match on the satellite television in some fake pub?
The reader who does not know a farthing from a guinea, it’s safe to say, will nonetheless grasp the great drama of attraction and repulsion that plays out between Darcy and Elizabeth. The cut and thrust of their conversation is timeless. Generations of young women who do not know the first thing about an entailed estate or a quadrille will recognize in Austen’s heroine a kindred spirit, a contemporary, a valued ally in the eternal war between the sexes.Grimes also writes:
Certain writers create worlds that readers do not want to leave, ever. Extreme devotees of Austen do not simply enjoy the novels, they want to sit in the living room at Longbourn with the Bennet sisters, drinking tea and analyzing Darcy’s behavior.
The king has come: the blind can see,
The strong man is bound and the captives go free!
Tell all who have ears that the kingdom is here
And nothing will stand in its way!
To him is given all authority
For he has risen! And the stone rolled away
Became a great mountain, now it fills the earth,
And nothing can stand in its way!
Now Satan is bound from deceiving the nations,
The gospel resounds and the earth hears its song.
And the kingdom rule of the Faithful and True
Has come in each one
Who will bow before the King of Kings.
And when there are people from every nation
And every tongue who join in the song,
Then the kingdom rule of the Faithful and True
Will come and each one
Wll bow before the King of Kings.
You reign over all through the people you've called
You reign over all through the people you've called.
Two weeks ago I decided to give up alcohol and chocolate for a month. 
With the chocolate I lasted about 12 days, with the small exception of a mini Mars Bar after donating blood (as Donna said, who can fault me for taking sustenance from chocolate after saving someone's life??)
Inspired by an email conversation with Matt, and reading a couple of articles with titles* that reminded me of Harry Potter books, I have decided that I should write a series of books about a new superhero called Henry More. I've already dreamt about looking for action figures of the Cambridge Platonists, so this is only a small step further!
Ainsley Hayes (from the West Wing) on why she opposes the Equal Rights Amendment:
While a US administration that refused to fund programs against AIDS unless they taught about chastity instead of condoms could rightly be criticised, the mullahs whose abuses of women's rights were very many degrees worse could not.
Was it before or after September 11 that thinkers of the Left - for feminism was a movement of the Left - decided that racism was a far more serious crime than sexism? When did cultural sensitivity trump women's rights?
I don't hold much hope on this International Women's Day of seeing big protests in Australian cities against female genital mutilation; or against honour killings, stonings, child marriages, forced seclusion or any of the other persecutions to which women are still subjected. The fire of Western feminism has quietly died away, first as a victim of its success, lately as a victim of cultural relativism, of anti-Americanism and reluctance to be seen to be condemning the enemies of the enemy.
Yet as Western women take their rights for granted, other women are just beginning to demand theirs. There will be marches in Europe this International Women's Day, organised by Muslim (or ex-Muslim) women reformers. They will march through Germany and France to present a grievance to the European Parliament in Brussels, saying that the veil is "a manifestation of political Islam and a symbol of the oppression of women".
In Pakistan, the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill, which would ban forced marriages and give women rights over property, is before the national assembly. In Syria, the murder of a 16-year-old girl by her brother, at her family's request, has prompted a national debate about the leniency shown to perpetrators of honour killings.
In Saudi Arabia, Bill Gates, addressing a recent business seminar, told the segregated audience - women, their faces and bodies shrouded in black, behind a large partition - that the country would not achieve its ambition to become an economic power while it failed to use the talents of half the population. "One side of the audience loved it," he quipped later.
Maybe my report on the death of Western feminism is greatly exaggerated. I hope so. "Don't be so polite, girls!" the old feminists used to sing. "Show a little fight, girls, show a little fight!" ...Human rights are universal. And women's rights are human rights.I don't agree with everything Pamela Bone writes, particularly on "sexual rights" and a woman's "right" to control her own body, but I think she has some good points. It seems to me that many young women of my generation do take their rights for granted, and forget that women had to fight to work outside the home, to vote, and to own property. While maybe these aren't all necessarily rights but privileges, men (white men, anyway) did not have to fight in the same way. Many opportunities were denied to women simply because they were women.
I was so unique
Now I feel skin deep
Count on the makeup to cover it all
Crying myself to sleep
Because I cannot keep their attention
Thought I could be strong
But it’s killing me
Does someone hear my cry
I’m dying for new life
I want to be beautiful
And make you stand in awe
Look inside my heart
And be amazed
I want to hear you say
Who I am is quite enough
Just want to be worthy of love
And beautiful
Sometimes I wish I was someone other than me
Fighting to make the mirror happy
Trying to find whatever is missing
Won’t you help me back to glory
You make me beautiful
You make me stand in awe
You step inside my heart
And I am amazed
I love to hear You say
Who I am is quite enough
You make me worthy of love
And beautiful
I wrote this song following a series of talks with my youth group about what it is to be a woman—how we reflect God’s glory and what our hearts desire most. “Beautiful” was both easy and tough to write. Easy because I fight those battles almost every second—“Am I enough? Do they think I’m beautiful?” – tough because it was almost shameful to admit those are often my thoughts and fears. Though it’s not something neatly packaged that I can cure, my heart is deeply burdened to just be in the struggle alongside women… to feel vulnerable together… to win the battles together… to finally come to understand that we are intensely pursued by the Strong and Rescuing Jesus—what we have wanted all along.
People sometimes suppose that judgment is an "Old Testament" idea, whereas in the New Testament you find only mercy. This isn't even a caricature; it's simple fiction.
Tom Wright, Romans for Everyone, Part 1, p. 29.
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Even worm refuses to watch Debnam-Iemma debate
About this time I started to read an article in a magazine, on the subject of the basic difference between the male and female habits of thought, relating chiefly to their experience of sex (the title of the article made you think it would tell a great deal more about sex than it actually did). The author was a famous New York psychiatrist, a disciple of Freud. He said that the difference between the male and female modes of through were easily illustrated by the thoughts of a boy and girl, sitting on a park bench, looking at the full moon. The boy thinks of the universe, its immensity and mystery; the girl thinks, "I must wash my hair." When I read this I was frantically upset; I had to put the magazine down. It was clear to me at once that I was not thinking as the girl thought; the full moon would never as long as I lived remind me to wash my hair... I wanted men to love me, and I wanted to think of the universe when I looked at the moon.
Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Woman
He pushed me down again but this time I was expecting it. I held my breath and fought him. I fought strongly and naturally, as anybody does, held down in the water, and without thinking much about who was holding me. But when he let me come up just long enough to hear him say, "Now say you'll do it," I saw his face streaming with water I had splashed over him and I felt amazement, not that I was fighting with Garnet but that anybody could have made such a mistake, to think he had real power over me. I was too amazed to be angry, I forgot to be frightened, it seemed to me impossible that he should not understand that all the powers I granted him were in play.
Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Women
On this day in 1564, Galileo Galilei was born at Pisa.In the year of fourteen ninety-twoI'm not sure if I found out much more about Galileo during primary school. The next time I encountered his story, as far as I can remember, was in my first year at university. I was enrolled in a Bachelor of Medical Science, but I decided to take some Science and Technology Studies subjects as electives. (It sounded more interesting than physics, psychology or computer science, and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made!) The first subject I took was called Cosmos and Culture, and it was an overview of the history of science from the ancient Greeks to the 20th century. It was all very new to me, but I was loving it. We got to the Copernican Revolution and Galileo the week before our major essay was due, but I was fascinated enough to abandon my research on Aristotle in order to write about whether the Copernican Revolution was indeed a revolution. I'm still amused that I relied heavily on Thomas Kuhn's 1957 classic The Copernican Revolution without knowing anything of its significance or that of the follow-up, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. But that's another story.
When Columbus sailed the ocean blue
Had he landed on India's shore
You might never have come to knock on my door.
Who needs a rhyme or a reason?
Some dreams were made to find
So I know that I must follow
Ask me just how much I love you
You are starlight, I'm Galileo
Even on the darkest night oh
I will find the shining light of our love.
Joshua 10:12-14 - At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon." And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD obeyed the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.The message I received from this class was the Galileo was condemned as a heretic because the Church insisted on a literal interpretation of this passage. Of course the sun moves! Joshua wouldn't have told the sun to stop moving if it had actually been the earth that was moving - he would have told the earth to stop spinning! And because of this, science and religion became mortal enemies, as they still are. I remember thinking how stupid the Church was, and how it was responsible for the conflict between science and religion, just because they insisted on a literal interpretation of a verse that was obviously not meant to be taken as a scientific statement.
If I go into too much detail here, this post will become far too long. I suspect that many people have already stopped reading! But here's a few points, just to whet your appetite.Take note, theologians, that in your desire to makes matters of faith out of propositions relating to the fixity of the sun and earth you run the risk of eventually having to condemn as heretics those who would declare the earth to stand still and the sun to change position - eventually, I say, at such a time as it might be physically or logically proved that the earth moves and the sun stands still.
- Note added by Galileo in the preliminary leaves of his copy of Dialogue on the Great World Systems (1632)
Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one wanders about in a dark labyrinth.
- The Assayer (1623)
But I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them
- Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (1615)
My dad just walked through the house holding a hammer and some nails.Ah, you've got a hammer! Are you going to hammer in the morning?
Well, no, it's the afternoon now.
Are you going to hammer in the evening?
I hope to be finished before then.
Are you going to hammer all over this land?
No, just the back step.
Is it a hammer of justice?
No, it's a claw hammer.
Are you going to hammer out justice?
No.
Are you going to hammer out warning?
No.
Love between your brothers and your sisters all over this land?
Nope, I'm just going to fix the step.
Imagine that on 9/11, six hours after the assault on the twin towers and the Pentagon, terrorists had carried out a second wave of attacks on the United States, taking an additional 3,000 lives. Imagine that six hours after that, there had been yet another wave. Now imagine that the attacks had continued, every six hours, for another four years, until nearly 20 million Americans were dead. This is roughly what the Soviet Union suffered during World War II, and contemplating these numbers may help put in perspective what the United States has so far experienced during the war against terrorism.
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