“Being a lover of freedom, when the (Nazi) revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks.
“…Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.” –Albert Einstein, from Kampi und Zeugnis der bekennenden Kirche
Tag: God
bq. “Life can be a do-it-yourself project, or life can be built by your Father in Heaven. The choice is yours to make freely. Personally, I rely on the Carpenter of the cosmos to step in when I forget to ‘measure twice, cut once.'” –your humble host
(Feel free to use, just with proper attribution, i.e., Christopher Turner, or retrophisch, and if applicable, the permalink.)
From the “Religion of Peace” department…
The Barnabas Fund is reporting that a Palestinian Muslim who converted to Christianity was butchered and his body returned in four pieces to his family.
The Fund channels aid to suffering Christians in more than 40 nations, where they face anything from simple discrimination to wholesale genocide. The latter, consequently, is usually by members of the “Religion of Peace.”
“The Christian faith is not about mere intellectual assent to a set of doctrines, but about a daily walk with this person Jesus. It’s about living in awareness of Christ risen, resurrected, and living in my life. Even though doctrine is important, wisdom in the Bible has more to do with character and the art of living. Christianity is about living out the will of God, and living abundantly.” — Rich Mullins
Can’t Stop Lovin’ You
Hey!
There’s a time and place for everything. For everyone
We can push with all our might, but nothin’s gonna come
Oh no, nothin’s gonna change
An’ if I ask you not to try, oh could you let it be?
I wanna hold you and say
We can’t throw this all away
Tell me you won’t go, you won’t go
You have to hear me say
I can’t stop lovin’ you
And no matter what I say or do
You know my heart is true, oh
I can’t stop lovin’ you
You can change your friends, your place in life
You can change your mind
We can change the things we say, and do any time
Oh no, but I think you’ll find
That when you look inside your heart
Oh baby, I’ll be there. Yeah!
Hold on. I’m holdin’ on
Baby, just come on, come on, come on
I just wanna hear you say
I can’t stop lovin’ you
And no matter what you say or do
You know my heart is true, oh-oh!
I can’t stop lovin’ you
Oh, I’m so twisted and tied
And all I remember, was how hard we tried
Only to surrender
And when it’s over
I know how it’s gonna be
And true love will never die
Or, not fade away
And I can’t stop lovin’ you
And no matter what I say or do
You know my heart is true, oh
I can’t stop lovin’ you
And I know what I got to do
Hey Ray, what you said is true, oh
I can’t stop lovin’ you, oh no
Oh, can’t stop lovin’ you
© Copyright 1995-2000 Van Halen
From VH’s site:
This was the first single from “Balance” and the song became the band’s 16th Top 40 single! The Ray Sammy refers to in the song is Ray Charles, who had a hit with the Don Gibson original, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” in 1962.
By far one of my favorite VH songs, right behind “Dreams.” I love you, sweetheart.
THROUGH THE NIGHT
Hey, I’m the guy who found a treasure in your eyes,
And that’s no surprise. There’s something ’bout you, clearly.
I can’t recall all the ones I met before.
They move on by, and leave me nothing to believe in.
Though the night may grow, the winds may blow.
The rain may fall from out into nowhere…
Through the night you learn what it is to yearn
When you cannot find the girl.
Through the night you feel how it is to kneel,
Asking God for all the world.
Drove all the way to drop a circus in your face.
If that’s what it takes, I’ll do it every day now.
Still, for your smile, I would run another mile
Barefoot and bruised, and laughing all the while.
Well, the rising sun says the night is done.
Yeah, the day will come after the darkness.
Through the night you learn what it is to yearn
When you cannot find the girl.
Through the night you feel how it is to kneel,
Asking God for all the world.
Asking God for all the world.
Asking God for all the world.
— Owen Thomas, © 2002 Birdwing Publishing
I love you.
Beloved children’s programming legend Fred Rogers died early this morning at age 74, from stomach cancer. Song composer, puppeteer, Presbyterian minister–Mr. Rogers’ love for kids took us all, from 1968 to 2001, into the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
Good-bye, Mr. Rogers, and thank you for being a part of my childhood. You were a blast.
It’s pretty cool when your pastor uses a Monty Python reference in his sermon. In this case, it was the “Department of Redundancy Department.” Tim was talking about how the term “born-again Christian” is redundant, since by definition someone who is a Christian is born again through his new faith in Jesus Christ. He threw in the above Python gag as a further example of said redundancy.
“The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.” —Proverbs 15:4/NIV, verseoftheday.com
“Americans are a people who have realized a dream of freedom, who have taken it from an abstract hope and turned it into a living reality. What made this possible was a founding generation that understood the essential principles of liberty, and acknowledged from the very beginning that the basis for human justice, human dignity and human rights is no more–nor less–than the will and authority of our Creator, God.
“The importance of this principle is definitive, because it allows us to understand that since we claim our rights by virtue of the authority of God, we must exercise our rights with respect for the authority of God.
“This truth becomes a sound foundation for discipline in our use of our freedoms. It becomes a bulwark against the abuse of our powers. It becomes also the ground for our confidence that, when we claim those rights, and when we exercise them, we do not have to fear the consequences, because we are a people who exercise our rights in the fear of God.
“This means that as American citizens, we can have confidence in our capacity, ability and character to take care of our own families. We can trust ourselves to raise our own children, to direct our own schools, to run our own communities and states, to do honest business together, and to generally take care of the things that need to be done for our nation and its people.” —Alan Keyes