The greatest man in history, named Jesus,
had no servants, yet they called Him Master.
Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher.
Had no medicines, yet they called him Healer.
He had no army, yet kings feared Him.
He won no military battles, yet he conquered the world.
He committed no crime, yet they... crucified Him.
He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.
"There is, I conceive, no contradiction in believing that mind is at once the cause of matter and of the development of individualised human minds through the agency of matter. "
Began at 50: my first time reading the Bible straight through
I have always "read around" in the Bible, reading individual books, or a sub-set of books. I've read many books many times, but could not tell you with any confidence that I have read every book.
A while ago I started reading it from front to back, starting at Genesis 1. It is interesting how you get an entirely different perspective when you read it this way. The way the stories unfold, first flying over, then getting closer in and revealing more detail. It is incredibly beautiful how all the books fit together into a bigger whole. That aspect of it was a complete surprise to me.
It has been slow going, just a few chapters a week. I am now at Isaiah. I've always loved this book, but wow! what an amazing book when read as part of the sequence of the entire Jewish Testament narrative. I'm closing in on the NT books, and though I have read them many times over, I'm wondering if their message will have the same newness of perspective that Isaiah now has.
If you're like me, and you have never read the books of the bible straight through from the beginning, I HIGHLY recommend it. It can be difficult at times (the genealogy records, and the engineering descriptions of the temple, for example), but it is worth the effort. It is very different from reading a book, or a sub-set of books from within the whole. For me, the best way to deal with those many times my attention starts to wonder, is to simply put it down, and come back to it later when I'm ready to be fully engaged (hence, the slow going).
For those who, like me, have not yet done this; when you're ready to do it you will, and you will not be disappointed.
Most restaurants fail to properly strain ravioli. This ruins the tomato gravy by bathing the ravioli in what can best be described as a puddle of red dishwater in the bottom of the plate.
Consequently, people who love ravioli the most are the least likely to order it when they go out to a restaurant.
" A quick trip to the Moon provides the answer: Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside [facing you], completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is under way. You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it's not. The rim of the planet is on fire! As you scan your eye around Earth's circumference, you're seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once. This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth's shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb. "
Last time a lunar coincided with solstice?
1638 DEC 21, Next time it will happen? 2094 DEC 21
The reason people don't like a particular musical genre has nothing to do with how they feel about the good songs in the genre. It's because they never hear the good songs.
Every genre is a mountain of coal with a few diamonds scattered and buried inside. People who don't like a particular genre are put off by the crappy songs. . . the coal.
It has to be this way. If there were mountains of diamonds, then diamonds would be looked upon in the same way we look upon coal. In fact, if diamonds were as plentiful as coal we would burn them in our furnaces.
