The Machine and the Garden

The Machine and the Garden
An economy is a garden. It can be fruitful if well tended but will be overrun by noxious weeds if not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/opinion/ our-gardenbrain-economy.html?nl= todaysheadlines&emc=thab1_20120711

Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron Remembered by Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks

By Liz Raftery
Wednesday June 27, 2012 09:55 AM EDT
People.com
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20607376,00.html

A true trailblazer, Nora Ephron leaves behind a legacy of always knowing the right (and wittiest) thing to say. She was "an expert in all the departments of living well," according to Meryl Streep – one of many paying tribute to the late author-journalist-screenwriter-director, who died Tuesday at 71.

"You could call on her for anything: doctors, restaurants, recipes, speeches, or just a few jokes, and we all did it, constantly," Streep – who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Julia Child in Ephron's Julie & Julia (2009) – wrote in an email to The New York Times. "Nora just looked at every situation and cocked her head and thought, ‘Hmmmm, how can I make this more fun?'"

Streep wasn't the only celebrity to remember Ephron fondly.

The filmmaker's Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998) star, Tom Hanks, said he and wife Rita Wilson were devastated by her death.

"At a dinner table and on a film set she lifted us all with wisdom and wit mixed with love for us and love for life," Hanks said in a statement. "Rita and I are so very sad to lose our friend who brought so much joy to all who were lucky enough to know her."

"Bebbington Quadrilateral"

Barack Obama: Evangelical-in-Chief?

How Christians might think about the President's faith.

Judd Birdsall

posted 6/21/2012 10:53AM

The most widely accepted definition of evangelicalism comes from British historian David Bebbington. According to Bebbington, an evangelical is a Christian marked by four distinct emphases:

- "conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed;
- activism, the expression of the gospel in effort;
- biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible;
and what may be termed
- crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/juneweb-only/barack-obama-evangelical-in-chief.html?utm_source=ctweekly-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=6300605&utm_
content=128812793&utm_campaign=2012

The Habit of Liking You

"Hang onto your old friends because there may come a day when there's no good reason for people to like you except out of habit."
~ Garrison Keillor

As Long As They Are Fighting

quotes from a sermon commenting on Mark 3:20-30

Rev. Brian Vinson, Millersport United Methodist Church,
Sunday, March 20, 2011
I am Convinced that Unity Leads to Victory
Mark 3:20-30
http://brian-sermons.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-am-convinced-that-unity-leads-to.html

quote from Ryan Bash:
“To be honest, I’m not sure Satan really cares about what churches fight about, as long as they are fighting. I’m not sure he has much interest in who’s right and who’s wrong, as long as we’re refusing to treat one another with love and grace in the midst of the disagreement.”

There are some of you who don’t hear from God and you, implicitly if not explicitly, blame God for it. If that’s not what you’re doing, what are you doing? What’s your excuse?
Are you studying the Bible? God speaks through his word. Are you asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the Word when you read it? Are you actively seeking others to discuss scripture with? Are you praying with other Christians?
If not, what’s your excuse? Really. What’s your excuse?

Posted by Brian Vinson at 7:42 AM

People Remember Quality

“More than anything, people remember quality.”

~ Bob Evans

A Friend of Your Mind

from Toni Morrison's book Beloved:

Paul D reflects on how his relationship with Sethe is healing in the same way as the relationship between Sixo and the Thirty Mile Woman.
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”

Who Is Elect?

"Some people are predestined to believe and teach predestination. Some people are predestined to believe and teach freewill. Some predestinators are predestined to change to freewill later in life. Some freewillers are predestined to become predestinators later in life."

~ Clarence Cossey, Baylor University
comment on the article "Who Is Elect? Arminius Differed from Calvin" http://www.christianity.com/ChurchHistory/11630050/?utm_source=This%20Week%20in%20Christian%20History%20-%20Christianity.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=05/11/2012/ as of 5/11/12

Courage

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.”

G.K. Chesterton

We need greater virtues

In one of his famous maxims, the great 17th Century French aphorist Francois de la Rochefoucauld said this:

"Il faut de plus grandes vertus pour soutenir la bonne fortune que la mauvaise."

Translated this means: "We need greater virtues to sustain good than evil fortune."

Facts are Friends

"Facts are Friends."

~ Author Unknown

All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten

excerpts from Robert Fulghum's "All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten:"

"All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:
Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Take a nap every afternoon.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup -- they all die. So do we.
Think what a better world it would be if we all -- the whole world -- had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap.
Or, if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are -- when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."

Robert Fulghum "All I really Need to Know I learned In Kindergarten",
Villard Books N.Y. 1988, pp. 6-8

How to be Happy

"You can be happy by not being unhappy."

Juanita W.
April 30, 2012

Isaiah 53 Explained

Isaiah 53 Explained
Dr. Mitch Glaser
following is the Foreword to this book, quoted from
http://www.isaiah53.com/free-book/sample-chapter

Foreword

One chapter really can change your life!
That chapter is Isaiah 53, and the best-selling book in which it is found is the Bible—the Hebrew Scriptures, often described as the Old Testament.
This brief volume is written primarily for those who are not religious. Since Isaiah 53 is found in the Hebrew Scriptures, much of what you are about to read is written with the Jewish reader in mind.
However, this is not intended to be exclusively so. Like Jerusalem—a Jewish city important to many faiths—the Hebrew Scriptures, originally Jewish documents, are considered to be holy writings by Christians as well. The Old Testament is also referenced in the Koran. Therefore, even though this book is primarily written for Jewish people, hopefully it will be read and understood by those of a variety of faiths: Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and those who do not claim allegiance to any formal religion, but are looking to deepen their relationship with God.
There are a number of reasons why Isaiah 53 can change your life. As a chapter in the Jewish Bible, Isaiah 53 is part of the book that describes our history, ethics, religion and the very basis for our Jewish heritage. There is also considerable information in the Hebrew Scriptures regarding God’s love and plan for the Gentile nations. Whether or not you are Jewish, whether or not you are religious, I hope you will discover that reading and understanding Isaiah chapter 53 will change your life.
Allow me to offer a few compelling reasons why I hope you will find Isaiah 53 meaningful:
•This chapter will help you understand some things about yourself—especially regarding your relationship to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
•This chapter will demonstrate that the Bible can be trusted.
•This chapter will introduce you to God, who predicts the future and also brings it to pass.
•This chapter will help shape your expectation of who the Messiah would be. You will discover how this chapter has been fulfilled in the life of the One whom many call “the greatest Jew who ever lived.”
•This book was written by a Messianic Jew—a Jewish person who believes that Jesus (Yeshua) is the Messiah of Israel and the fulfillment of Isaiah 53—and one whose life was completely changed as a result.
Having been raised in a traditional Jewish home, I fully understand the challenges of keeping an open mind to the possibility that Jesus is the Messiah. So many of my fellow Jews are searching for a deeper spirituality and desire an intimate personal relationship with God. Many of us have not found this within the Jewish religion, but we would never consider detaching ourselves from the Jewish community.
When I came to believe that Yeshua was the Messiah many years ago, I certainly had no intention of abandoning my Jewishness. I was looking for an authentic spirituality, and I imagine you might be interested in the same thing. I hope you might be willing to put aside—at least for a moment—the common belief that you cannot be Jewish and believe in Jesus.
After all, if one of our greatest Jewish prophets predicted the Messianic details that Yeshua ultimately fulfills, then we would certainly have the basis to believe that one can be Jewish and believe in Yeshua.
More than anything, I hope that as you read this brief volume, your soul will be deeply touched by God. I pray that your spiritual search for a deeper and more intimate relationship with the Creator will become a reality in your life as it has in mine. There is no relationship in the world more fulfilling—or one that brings greater joy and satisfaction—than connection with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The purpose of this book is not to persuade you to change religions, but rather to discover a new relationship with the One who made you in His image and created you for this relationship. Not knowing God is like not knowing your mother or father; it leaves a hole in your soul that can only be filled by discovering where you have come from. Without knowing God, it is difficult to answer the fundamental questions of life: Why am I here? What is my purpose for living? How should I live my life in a way that gives me the most fulfillment and helps me to be a better person? These are the questions that either plague us or propel us into the arms of our Creator.
May the Lord enlighten your path and give you the insight to understand Isaiah chapter 53—and to find a new and personal relationship with the God who made you and loves you.
Dr. Mitch Glaser
Jerusalem
May 2010

To exalt or subjugate women

"The truth is that male religious leaders have had—and still have—an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation for justification for much of the persuasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world."
~ Jimmy Carter

Separation from God

"Death is not the enemy, separation from God is the enemy."

~ author unknown

The Definition of the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D)

The Definition of the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D)

Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.

http://www.reformed.org/documents/chalcedon.html

How Enlightened Are You?

HOW ENLIGHTENED ARE YOU?

IF....

If you can live without caffeine,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him or her,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, gender preference, or politics,

--Then you have almost reached the same level of spiritual development as your dog!

The Truth

THE TRUTH
Once Satan and his demon sidekick were walking down the street, closely watching a man 20 yards ahead who was on the verge of realizing the Supreme Truth. The demon grew worried, and began to nudge Satan, but Satan looked quite calm.

Sure enough, the man did, in fact, soon realize the deepest spiritual Truth. Yet Satan still did nothing about it.

With this, the demon nudged Satan harder and, getting no response, finally blurted out, “Satan! Don’t you see? That man has realized the Truth! And yet you are doing nothing to stop him!”

With that, Satan cunningly smiled and announced, “Yes, he has realized the Truth. And now I am going to help him organize the Truth!”

~ story heard years ago from Indian sage Jiddu Krishnamurti

On Learning from Elders - John Cassian

On Learning from Elders. John Cassian:
And therefore by no means let the ignorance or shallowness of one old man or of a few deter you and cut you off from that salutary path about which we have spoken and from the traditions of our forebears. The clever enemy misuses their gray hairs to deceive the young. But everything should be revealed to the elders without any obfuscating embarrassment, and from them one may confidently receive both healing for one’s wounds and examples for one’s way of life. Thanks to them we shall experience the same assistance and a like result if we strive to aim at nothing whatsoever by our own judgment and presumption.
Finally, it is evident that this understanding is greatly pleasing to God, for not without reason do we find this same instruction even in holy Scripture. Thus, the Lord did not desire of himself to teach the boy Samuel through divine speech, once he had been chosen by his own decision, but he was obliged to return twice to the old man. He willed that one whom he was calling to an intimate relationship with himself should even be instructed by a person who had offended God, because he was an old man. And he desired that one whom he judged most worthy to be selected by himself should be reared by an old man so that the humility of him who was called to a divine ministry might be tested and so that the pattern of this subjection might be offered as an example to young men.

~ Conference 2.13.12–2.14.3