“
I am frequently asked if I have visited Israel, whereas yet, it is simply assumed that I have. Well, I don’t travel. I really don’t, and if I did, I probably wouldn’t visit Israel. I remember how it was in 1948 when Israel was being established and all my Jewish friends were ecstatic, I was not. I said: what are we doing? We are establishing ourselves in a ghetto, in a small corner of a vast Muslim sea. The Muslims will never forget nor forgive, and Israel, as long as it exists, will be embattled. I was laughed at, but I was right. I can’t help but feel that the Jews didn’t really have the right to appropriate a territory only because 2000 years ago, people they consider their ancestors, were living there. History moves on and you can’t really turn it back. (#92 ff.)
”
”
Isaac Asimov (Asimov Laughs Again: More Than 700 Jokes, Limericks and Anecdotes)
“
To say it was a beautiful day would not begin to explain it. It was that day when the end of summer intersects perfectly with the start of fall .... [p.218 ff.]
”
”
Ann Patchett (Truth & Beauty)
“
PENUT:and when you really think about its jef-f-f Dunham
JEFF: F-F
PENUT:your using an unneeded F
Jef-f-f Dun- Ham. com!!!!!
Am i pissing you of-f-f????? Jef-f-f Dun Ham.com
PENUT: you know the wierd thing is i am actually pissing him off!!!and he would like to kill me
JEFF:no i wouldn't
PENUT:yes
JEFF:no
PENUT:assert you fellings Jef-f-f
”
”
Jeff Dunham
“
It's not a question of can or can't. There are some things in life you just do.
”
”
Lightning Claire Farron FF13
Amal El-Mohtar (This Is How You Lose the Time War)
“
Barbara had really missed her calling. She should have been a gynecologist. Nothing pleased her more than having her face between another woman’s legs.
”
”
Elysia N. Fields
“
Need a brush?’
‘You tell me.’
‘Nah, that FF look is hot.’
‘FF?’
He smiled. ‘Freshly fucked.
”
”
C.C. Gibbs (All He Needs (All or Nothing, #2))
“
Sometimes everything you know in the world turns out to be a lie. But at the end of the day the lie isn’t what matters, it’s what you do after you tell it. If you work hard enough you can make it true.
”
”
Hope Estheim
“
The say beauty conquered the beast, but I'll bet lust had a lot to do with it.
”
”
Travis Luedke (Blood Slave (The Nightlife))
“
hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest
non radii solis neque lucida tela diei
discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.
(1.146ff.)
Therefore it is necessary that neither the rays of the sun nor the shining spears of Day should shatter this terror and darkness of the mind, but the aspect and reason of nature...
”
”
Lucretius (De rerum natura)
“
Then she is on me. Her soft, hot body collapses onto my own ravenous frame. She pushes my legs open with her knees and pulls my arms above my head with her hands, holding me a willing hostage. For one long moment we are eye to eye. Her breasts press down into my nipples, goading them but offering no release, and then her lips come crashing down on mine. She kisses me as though she already owns me; exploring my mouth with her tongue, dragging it aggressively from one side of my lips to the other.
”
”
Felicity Brandon (Customer Service)
“
Good choice, Polly,” she soothes, caressing my long, dark hair.
“You may not have been fucked by a woman before but, if you’re a good girl now, then you soon will be…
”
”
Felicity Brandon (Customer Service)
“
I want you to stay in the city for a month."
"Why?"
Because I would miss you. Because I am not ready to let you go.
”
”
Marie Rutkoski (The Midnight Lie (Forgotten Gods, #1))
“
Don't doubt your faith; doubt your doubts, for they are unreliable.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
It's not a question of can or can't. There are some things in life you just do.
”
”
NOT A BOOK
“
A dream is not reality but who's to say which is which?
”
”
Violet Penrose (Skin Deep)
“
Here’s to a tasty lunch,” she says, winking at me.
It’s the strangest thing, but I actually feel my body respond to her. Beneath their lace prison, my nipples harden and send a jolt of arousal across my midriff and down to my thighs. I take a long sip of champagne and eye Rachel hungrily. I can’t be sure if it’s the alcohol or the company but I already feel giddy.
”
”
Felicity Brandon (Customer Service)
“
The selflessness and dedication shown by many Greek doctors can be seen not only in such works as the Epidemics, but also in, for example, Thucydides’ account of the plague at Athens (II, 47ff.) – where he notes the high incidence of mortality from the disease among the doctors who attempted to treat it.
”
”
Hippocrates (Hippocratic Writings)
“
the father nature of God must long for man to return to the security and simple faith of pure fellowship with Him, taking His Word as fact that can be fully trusted!
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
God would rather have us doubt His ability than His willingness.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
What did you think?"
I blurted, "That when you wanted something, you wouldn't rest until you got it."
"Only when we are talking about women, dear Nirrim.
”
”
Marie Rutkoski (The Midnight Lie (Forgotten Gods, #1))
“
The demon looked insulted. ‘You don’t like the Underworld, brother?’
‘Can’ff ssay I do,’ spoke Mario through the curved claw held firmly between his teeth. ‘Much bffetter up tffhere!’ he pointed at the amber-glowing canopy perched at the very top of the World Tree.
‘Yeah but that seems like—,’ the green-eyed demon paused, as though he was bracing himself for something. ‘–work,’ he finally said. The word alone seemed to cause him unimaginable disgust. ‘How about you put that rock down and come waste time with us at the pit?
”
”
Louise Blackwick (The Underworld Rhapsody)
“
All different yet somehow alike-not family but easy with one another and loud, laughing and singing, bright and clean. The same bright, the same clean she remembered from the scent of the promised lake. The girl’s heart soared: a story came alive from legend, knights hunting dragons!
”
”
Nicola Griffith (Spear)
“
Everyone that looked at the brazen serpent, the type of Christ, lived. "And their faces were not ashamed;" says the psalmist. They were all, humanly speaking, incurable, but they were both forgiven and healed by looking.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
The people of midtown Manhattan, understandably, had a love-hate relationship with the FF. They loved having heroes in their midst, especially heroes as public and friendly as the Four. But the constant brawling and property damage had brought on civil suits, protests, and even the occasional death threat. Still,
”
”
Stuart Moore (Civil War Prose Novel)
“
The strikes continue ruthlessly. I brace for each blow, numbering it as the heat subsides, and enjoying her tender exploration of my swollen lips in between. The rhythm pulls me through the assault and, all too soon, I acknowledge the tenth strike.
”
”
Felicity Brandon (Customer Service)
“
You really are going to become a duchess. The FF is about to become the BB!”
“Foolish fiancés are often killed on the battlefield,” Olivia pointed out. “I think the term is ‘cannon fodder.’”
Her sister gave a sudden laugh. “You could at least try to sound sad at the prospect.”
“I would be sad,” Olivia protested. “I think.”
“You’d have reason. Not only would you lose the prospect of being ‘Your Grace’d’ for the rest of your life, but our parents would hold hands as they jumped off Battersea Bridge to their watery deaths.
”
”
Eloisa James (The Duke Is Mine (Fairy Tales, #3))
“
Let not God's Word depart from thine eyes; keep it in the midst of thine heart:" That is, look steadfastly and continuously and only at the evidence God gives for your faith.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
Praying for healing with the faith-destroying words, "if it be Thy will,' is not planting the "seed"; it is destroying the seed.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
If
you want to receive life and healing from God, take time to find the words of Scripture that promise these results.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
Even the dead had names.
”
”
Nicola Griffith (Spear)
“
The sacrifice of praise and the giving of thanks is continually done in the faith realm. This is before our blessings have been changed into their visible form.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
The best way to destroy an enemy is to turn him into a friend.
”
”
F.F. Bruce
“
You seem hard to hold, I guess. Your attention."
He took a moment to reply. "That might be true, usually. But you hold mine.
”
”
Marie Rutkoski (The Midnight Lie (Forgotten Gods, #1))
“
The mother of Jesus appears twice in this Gospel—here, and at the cross (19:25 ff.). There is also an allusion to her in 6:42. In none of these places is
”
”
F.F. Bruce (The Gospel of John: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition)
“
Thus, in permitting Muslims to defend themselves, it gives permission generally to ‘those who have been driven unjustly from their homes . . .’ (22: 40 ff.).
”
”
Anonymous (The Qur'an)
“
De dois ff se compõe
esta cidade a meu ver:
um furtar, outro foder.
”
”
Gregório de Matos (Poemas Escolhidos)
“
You will get exactly what you deserve Polly,” comes the firm reply, “you can trust me on that… But if you do – trust me I mean – I promise you an unparalleled climax.”
She pauses, gazing deep into my frightened green eyes. “It’s your call Polly, all yours.”
I allow my aching body to decide for me
.
“Punish me please, mistress,” I say in a very small voice.
”
”
Felicity Brandon (Customer Service)
“
When your eyes are upon your symptoms and your mind is occupied with them more than with God's Word, you have in the ground the wrong kind of seed for the harvest that you desire. You have in the ground seeds of doubt. You are trying to raise one kind of crop from another kind of seed. It is impossible to sow tares and reap wheat. Your symptoms may point you to death, but God's Word points you to life,
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
He who holds his tongue in check controls both mind and body (James 3.2ff.). Thus it must be a decisive rule of every Christian fellowship that each individual is prohibited from saying much that occurs to him.
”
”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together)
“
Half a dozen fingers pointed at the amputated wheel--he stared at it for a moment and then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky. "It came off," some one explained. He nodded. "At first I din' notice we'd stopped." A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders he remarked in a determined voice: "Wonder'ff tell me where there's a gas'line station?" At least a dozen men, some of them little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond. "Back out," he suggested after a moment. "Put her in reverse." "But the WHEEL'S off!" He hesitated. "No harm in trying," he said.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
“
Nine is the mythical number of the Germanic tribes. Documentation for the significance of the number nine is found in both myth and cult. In Odin's self-sacrifice he hung for nine nights on the windy tree (Hávamál), there are nine worlds to Nifhel (Vafprudnismal 43), Heimdallr was born to nine mothers, Freyr had to wait for nine nights for his marriage to Gerd (Skírnismál 41), and eight nights (= nine days?) was the time of betrothal given also in the Þrymskviða. Literary embellishments in the Eddas similarly used the number nine: Skaði and Njörðr lived alternately for nine days in Nóatún and in Þrymheimr; every ninth night eight equally heavy rings drip from the ring Draupnir; Menglöð has nine maidens serve her (Fjölsvinnsmál 35ff), and Ægir had as many daughters. Thor can take nine steps at Ragnarök after his battle with the Midgard serpent before he falls down dead. Sacrificial feasts lasting nine days are mentioned for both Uppsala and Lejre and at these supposedly nine victims were sacrificed each day.
”
”
Rudolf Simek (A Dictionary of Northern Mythology)
“
Given our new situation, I think you should find a more appropriate way to address me Polly. Do so now please.”
I don’t even have to think. An invisible shroud of submission seems to have fallen over me and the prospect of surrendering to this beautiful creature is the only thing on my mind, because I do – absolutely – want her to fuck me, and I have never wanted anything so much…
”
”
Felicity Brandon (Customer Service)
“
Do not postpone life until two pounds form now. Go on the trip. Wear the strapless dress. Go zip lining, or water-skiing, or swimming with the dolphins. None of us are guaranteed a future. Putting ff joy until you're the right size could mean you'll never experience it at all.
”
”
Jennifer Weiner (Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing)
“
if you dwell often on the truth that God is Lord and orders everything, even the frustrations, for our sanctification (Hebrews 12:511; cf. Romans 8:28ff.), you will find yourself able increasingly, even in the most maddening moments, to “keep your cool”—and that is best of all.
”
”
J.I. Packer (Growing in Christ)
“
FF Yoga Sans is part of a double-barreled assault on the traditional classics, with its partner an update of Humanist serifs like Garamond. Not since FF Scala has there been such a bold attempt to redefine these models. Good for: When Gill Sans is wanted but its idiosyncrasies aren’t.
”
”
Stephen Coles (The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces)
“
Jesus gave himself up for us. Jesus the Son, though equal with the Father, gave up his glory and took on our human nature (Philippians 2:5ff). But further, he willingly went to the cross and paid the penalty for our sins, removing our guilt and condemnation, so that we could be united with him (Romans 6:5) and take on his nature (2 Peter 1:4). He gave up his glory and power and became a servant. He died to his own interests and looked to our needs and interests instead (Romans 15:1–3). Jesus’s sacrificial service to us has brought us into a deep union with him and he with us. And that, Paul says, is the key not only to understanding marriage but to living it.
”
”
Timothy J. Keller (The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God)
“
Love, therefore, may be commanded (Luke 6:27 ff.; Ephesians 5:25) and taught (Titus 2:3-4). Love does not come naturally, it must be learned.21 But since it is the fruit of the Spirit, Christians may be sure that it will take the work of God’s Spirit in their lives to learn to love. The Spirit works through prayerful obedience to the Scriptures.
”
”
Jay E. Adams (The Christian Counselor's Manual: The Practice of Nouthetic Counseling (Jay Adams Library))
“
We must know what the benefits of Calvary are before we can appropriate them by faith.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
Matthew 14:13-14
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
Seeing only what God says will produce and increase faith. This will make it easier to believe than to doubt. The evidences for faith are so much stronger than those for doubting.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
Faith is being so convinced of the absolute truth of the declarations of God, which are recorded in the Bible, that we act on them.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
You… Why are you worrying about me, Lotte?” Her words sound so unsure, so genuinely confused, that it breaks my heart a little.
“Because somebody should,” I reply.
”
”
Erica Hollis (Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire)
“
Pride and bravery kill more than weapons.
”
”
Erica Hollis (Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire)
“
It is very dangerous for one to be wise if his leaders are mugginses.
”
”
ZABs👹🔥✊🏿
“
Continue to believe that God gave you what you asked for when you prayed, thanking and praising Him for what He has given, and it will always materialize.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
When the Christian message is so thoroughly accommodated to the prevalent climate of opinion that it becomes mere expression of that opinion, it is no longer the Christian message.
”
”
F.F. Bruce
“
Though I found this information surprising, this being the Father of Medicine we are talking about, I did not question it. You do not question an author who appears on the title page as “T.V.N. Persaud, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.C. Path. (Lond.), F.F. Path. (R.C.P.I.), F.A.C.O.G.” Who knows, perhaps history erred in bestowing upon Hippocrates the title Father of Medicine.
”
”
Mary Roach (Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers)
“
When God gave Israel the Commandments on Sinai (Exodus 20:1-17), he introduced them by introducing himself. “God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of . . . bondage. You shall . . .’” (verse 1ff.). What God is and has done determines what his people must be and do. So study of the Decalogue should start by seeing what it tells us about God.
”
”
J.I. Packer (Growing in Christ)
“
Before people can have a steadfast faith for the healing of their body, they must be rid of all uncertainty concerning God's will in the matter. Appropriating faith cannot go beyond one's knowledge of the revealed will of God. Before attempting to exercise faith for healing, one needs to know what the Scriptures plainly teach, that it is just as much God's will to heal the body as it is to heal the soul.
”
”
F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
“
The presence of sin in the believer involves conflict in his heart and life. If there is remaining, indwelling sin, there must be the conflict which Paul describes 7:14ff. It is futile to argue that this conflict is not normal. If there is still sin to any degree in one who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, then there is tension, yes, contradiction, within the heart of that person. Indeed, the more sanctified the person is, the more conformed he is to the image of his Savior, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity to the holiness of God. The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus, the more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin which remains and the more poignant will be his detestation of it.
”
”
John Murray
“
Memang hukum fiqih itu didesain bisa berubah mengikuti zaman dengan dipandu kaidah-kaidah yang biasa disebut Qowaidul Fiqh. Hal ini tentu sangat penting, apalagi pengetahuan dan penemuan saat ini semakin canggih. Twitter contohnya. Media sosial yang sering dijadikan tempat perang ini punya fenomena jual-beli follower. Mereka menyamakan follower dengan barang yang bisa diuangkan. Gue ngebayangin akan ada Ahli Fiqih yang nantinya membuat hukum zakat follower. Jadi setiap lebaran tiba, pengguna Twitter yang punya satu juta follower (setara nisab 85 gram emas) dan sudah mencapai haul-nya, maka wajib menzakatkan 2,5% follower-nya untuk para mustahiq. Mustahiq itu adalah pengguna Twitter yang hanya punya follower nggak lebih dari 100, dan memasang foto dengan pakaian lusuh sambil menadahkan tangan. Mereka juga harus pakai hashtag #FF #fakirfollower.
”
”
Nailal Fahmi (Di Bawah Bendera Sarung)
“
FF DIN Designer: Albert-Jan Pool // Foundry: FontFont // Country of origin: Germany Release year: 1995 // Classification: Geometric Sans DIN is essentially the national typeface of Germany. Developed over many years by the German Institute for Standardization (Deutsches Institut für Normung) for traffic signs and other official applications, DIN is an unusually successful design by committee. Its spare, geometric construction effectively communicates
”
”
Stephen Coles (The Anatomy of Type: A Graphic Guide to 100 Typefaces)
“
Our mandala is indeed an 'eye,' the structure of which symbolizes the centre of order in the unconscious.
The eye is a hollow sphere, black inside, and filled with a semi-liquid substance, the vitreous humour.
Looking at it from outside, one sees a round, coloured surface, the iris, with a dark centre, from which a golden light shines.
Bohme calls it a 'fiery eye,' in accordance with the old idea that seeing emanates from the eye. The eye may well stand for consciousness (which is in fact an organ of perception), looking into its own background.
It sees its own light there, and when this is clear and pure the whole body is filled with light. Under certain conditions consciousness has a purifying effect.
This is probably what is meant by Matthew 6 : 22ff., an idea expressed even more clearly in Luke 11 : 33.
The eye is also a well-known symbol for God.
Hence Bohme calls his 'Philosophique Globe' the 'Eye of Eternity,' the 'Essence of all Essences,' the 'Eye of God.'
By accepting the darkness, the patient has not, to be sure, changed it into light, but she has kindled a light that illuminates the darkness within.
By day no light is needed, and if you don't know it is night you won't light one, nor will any light be lit for you unless you have suffered the horror of darkness.
This is not an edifying text but a mere statement of the psychological facts.
”
”
C.G. Jung
“
We can roll up two-dimensional graphene to make one-dimensional tubes, the so-called nanotubes. This can be done in many ways, giving nanotubes with different radii and pitches (see plate FF). Nanotubes that differ only slightly in geometry can have radically different physical properties. It is a triumph of quantum theory that these delicate properties can be predicted unambiguously, purely through calculation, and that they agree with experimental measurements.
”
”
Frank Wilczek (A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design)
“
In the modern era, teachers and scholarship have traditionally laid strenuous emphasis on the fact that Briseis, the woman taken from Achilles in Book One, was his géras, his war prize, the implication being that her loss for Achilles meant only loss of honor, an emphasis that may be a legacy of the homoerotic culture in which the classics and the Iliad were so strenuously taught—namely, the British public-school system: handsome and glamorous Achilles didn’t really like women, he was only upset because he’d lost his prize! Homer’s Achilles, however, above all else, is spectacularly adept at articulating his own feelings, and in the Embassy he says, “‘Are the sons of Atreus alone among mortal men the ones / who love their wives? Since any who is a good man, and careful, / loves her who is his own and cares for her, even as I now / loved this one from my heart, though it was my spear that won her’ ” (9.340ff.). The Iliad ’s depiction of both Achilles and Patroklos is nonchalantly heterosexual. At the conclusion of the Embassy, when Agamemnon’s ambassadors have departed, “Achilles slept in the inward corner of the strong-built shelter, / and a woman lay beside him, one he had taken from Lesbos, / Phorbas’ daughter, Diomede of the fair colouring. / In the other corner Patroklos went to bed; with him also / was a girl, Iphis the fair-girdled, whom brilliant Achilles / gave him, when he took sheer Skyros” (9.663ff.). The nature of the relationship between Achilles and Patroklos played an unlikely role in a lawsuit of the mid-fourth century B.C., brought by the orator Aeschines against one Timarchus, a prominent politician in Athens who had charged him with treason. Hoping to discredit Timarchus prior to the treason trial, Aeschines attacked Timarchus’ morality, charging him with pederasty. Since the same charge could have been brought against Aeschines, the orator takes pains to differentiate between his impulses and those of the plaintiff: “The distinction which I draw is this—to be in love with those who are beautiful and chaste is the experience of a kind-hearted and generous soul”; Aeschines, Contra Timarchus 137, in C. D. Adams, trans., The Speeches of Aeschines (Cambridge, MA, 1958), 111. For proof of such love, Aeschines cited the relationship between Achilles and Patroklos; his citation is of great interest for representing the longest extant quotation of Homer by an ancient author. 32
”
”
Caroline Alexander (The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War)
“
What did we talk about?
I don't remember. We talked so hard and sat so still that I got cramps in my knee. We had too many cups of tea and then didn't want to leave the table to go to the bathroom because we didn't want to stop talking. You will think we talked of revolution but we didn't. Nor did we talk of our own souls. Nor of sewing. Nor of babies. Nor of departmental intrigue. It was political if by politics you mean the laboratory talk that characters in bad movies are perpetually trying to convey (unsuccessfully) when they Wrinkle Their Wee Brows and say (valiantly--dutifully--after all, they didn't write it) "But, Doctor, doesn't that violate Finagle's Constant?" I staggered to the bathroom, released floods of tea, and returned to the kitchen to talk. It was professional talk. It left my grey-faced and with such concentration that I began to develop a headache. We talked about Mary Ann Evans' loss of faith, about Emily Brontë's isolation, about Charlotte Brontë's blinding cloud, about the split in Virginia Woolf's head and the split in her economic condition. We talked about Lady Murasaki, who wrote in a form that no respectable man would touch, Hroswit, a little name whose plays "may perhaps amuse myself," Miss Austen, who had no more expression in society than a firescreen or a poker. They did not all write letters, write memoirs, or go on the stage. Sappho--only an ambiguous, somewhat disagreeable name. Corinna? The teacher of Pindar. Olive Schriener, growing up on the veldt, wrote on book, married happily, and ever wrote another. Kate Chopin wrote a scandalous book and never wrote another. (Jean has written nothing.). There was M-ry Sh-ll-y who wrote you know what and Ch-rl-tt- P-rk-ns G-lm-an, who wrote one superb horror study and lots of sludge (was it sludge?) and Ph-ll-s Wh--tl-y who was black and wrote eighteenth century odes (but it was the eighteenth century) and Mrs. -nn R-dcl-ff- S-thw-rth and Mrs. G--rg- Sh-ld-n and (Miss?) G--rg-tt- H-y-r and B-rb-r- C-rtl-nd and the legion of those, who writing, write not, like the dead Miss B--l-y of the poem who was seduced into bad practices (fudging her endings) and hanged herself in her garter. The sun was going down. I was blind and stiff. It's at this point that the computer (which has run amok and eaten Los Angeles) is defeated by some scientifically transcendent version of pulling the plug; the furniture stood around unknowing (though we had just pulled out the plug) and Lady, who got restless when people talked at suck length because she couldn't understand it, stuck her head out from under the couch, looking for things to herd. We had talked for six hours, from one in the afternoon until seven; I had at that moment an impression of our act of creation so strong, so sharp, so extraordinarily vivid, that I could not believe all our talking hadn't led to something more tangible--mightn't you expect at least a little blue pyramid sitting in the middle of the floor?
”
”
Joanna Russ (On Strike Against God)
“
Jeremy would be a handsome groom. He looked like a Ken doll come to life. Probably has the
same plastic lack of parts as his tiny counterpart.
Did she mention that I probably brought her to more orgasms than your plastic junk could
ever dream of giving her?
”
”
Virginia Nelson (Turn Me On)
“
[Saturn, or the Latin age of the gods. Year of the world 2491.] 73 This is the age of the gods beginning among the nations of Latium and corresponding in character to the golden age of the Greeks, among whom our mythology will show [544ff] that the first gold was grain, by the harvests of which for many centuries the first nations counted their years [407]. Saturn was so called by the Latins from sati, sown [fields], and is called Chronos by the Greeks, among whom chronos means time, whence comes the word chronology.
”
”
Giambattista Vico (The New Science of Giambattista Vico: Unabridged Translation of the Third Edition (1744) with the addition of "Practic of the New Science")
“
Rex puts his hands on his hips, standing tall. With his broad shoulders, V-shaped torso and rigid posture, it's easy to see the military training in his bearing and attitude. He's like an action figure come to life, and it's unsettling how alluring that can be.
”
”
F.F. Perez (His Jewel)
“
You will be subject when you know that you never suffer undeserved punishment but deserve much greater punishment. The proud are smug in their opinion that they deserve only blessing. Like Job, they are not afraid, because they rely on their works (Job 9:28). Therefore they do not stand in the time of trial; but, as Matt, 7:24 ff. said about the house of the foolish man that was built on sand, they collapse in a great fall and become worse. Accordingly, this fear is a great part of the cross in the whole of life and in all our works; in fact, it is almost the whole of the cross.
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Martin Luther (Luther's Works, Vol. 14: Selected Psalms III)
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The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.
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F.F. Bruce (The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?)
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But as all pre-Christian cults were based on the idea of substitution, of representation, and tried to replace the irreplaceable, this worship was bound to remain vain. In the light of faith in Christ, the Letter to the Hebrews can dare to draw up this devastating balance sheet of the history of religion, although to express this view in a world seething with sacrifices must have seemed a tremendous outrage. It can dare to make this unqualified assertion that religions have run aground because it knows that in Christ the idea of the substitute, of the proxy, has acquired a new meaning. Christ, who in terms of the Law was a layman and held no office in Israel’s worship services, was—so the text says—the one true priest in the world. His death, which from a purely historical angle represented a completely profane event—the execution of a man condemned to death as a political offender—was in reality the one and only liturgy of the world, a cosmic liturgy, in which Jesus stepped, not in the limited arena of the liturgical performance, the Temple, but publicly, before the eyes of the world, through the curtain of death into the real temple, that is, before the face of God himself, in order to offer, not things, the blood of animals, or anything like that, but himself (Heb 9:11ff.). Let
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Pope Benedict XVI (Introduction To Christianity)
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Perhaps it is a deep-seated reluctance to face up to the gravity of sin which has led to its omission from the vocabulary of many of our contemporaries. One acute observer of the human condition, who has noticed the disappearance of the word, is the American psychiatrist Karl Menninger. He has written about it in his book, Whatever Became of Sin? Describing the malaise of western society, its general mood of gloom and doom, he adds that ‘one misses any mention of “sin”’. ‘It was a word once in everyone’s mind, but is now rarely if ever heard. Does that mean’, he asks, ‘that no sin is involved in all our troubles...? Has no-one committed any sins? Where, indeed, did sin go? What became of it?’ (p.13). Enquiring into the causes of sin’s disappearance, Dr Menninger notes first that ‘many former sins have become crimes’, so that responsibility for dealing with them has passed from church to state, from priest to policeman (p.50), while others have dissipated into sicknesses, or at least into symptoms of sickness, so that in their case punishment has been replaced by treatment (pp.74ff.). A third convenient device called ‘collective irresponsibility’ has enabled us to transfer the blame for some of our deviant behaviour from ourselves as individuals to society as a whole or to one of its many groupings (pp.94ff.).
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John R.W. Stott (The Cross of Christ)
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While the burning fish is tracing his arc
near the cypress, beneath the highest blue of all,
and the blind boy flies away in the white stone,
and the ivory poem of the green cicada
beats and reverberates in the elm,
let us give honor to the Lord—
the black mark of his good hand—
who has arranged for silence in all this noise.
Honor to the god of distance and of absence,
ff the anchor in the sea—the open sea…
He frees us from the world—it’s everywhere—
he opens roads for us to walk on.
With our cup of darkness filled to the brim,
with our heart that always knows some hunger,
let us give honor to the Lord who created the zero
and carved our thought out of the block of faith.
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Antonio Machado (Times Alone: Selected Poems)
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So the question is, what can I do to motivate you, Polly?”
She eyes me salaciously and I drop my gaze, unable to return the intensity.
Gently, she uses one finger to lift my chin and make my eyes meet her own. They are a vivid blue and alive with desire for me. The air around us is charged and the tension is palpable. My soaking pussy is a testament to how much I already want her…
“Well?” she asks, breaking my train of thought. I gaze at her face; just a few inches from mine.
“I – I’ve never done this before…”
“Done what Polly?” Rachel chides, removing her finger.
I miss the contact immediately and am rueful to have upset her. She raises one eyebrow at me.
“Thought about what motivates you?” she asks, sardonically.
“I’ve never been like this… with a woman, I mean…”
She rises from the sofa in one fluid movement and stands above me.
“Kneel Polly.”
Surprised by the order, I blink at her before I respond.
“Excuse me?”
Rachel smiles at me.
“Get. On. Your. Knees,” she says, articulating each word, and pointing to the floor in front of her.
“I am going to find a way to motivate you.
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Felicity Brandon (Customer Service)
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The final factors at work in us are nothing other than those talents which “a certain nobleman” entrusted to his “servants,” that they might trade with them (Luke 19 : 12ff.). It does not require much imagination to see what this involvement in the ways of the world means in the moral sense. Only an infantile person can pretend that evil is not at work everywhere, and the more unconscious he is, the more the devil drives him. It is just because of this inner connection with the black side of things that it is so incredibly easy for the mass man to commit the most appalling crimes without thinking. Only ruthless self-knowledge on the widest scale, which sees good and evil in correct perspective and can weigh up the motives of human action, offers some guarantee that the end-result will not turn out too badly. [256]
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C.G. Jung (Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (Collected Works, Vol 9ii))
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Though Calvin (1559/1960) frequently warned of the noetic effects of sin regarding spiritual matters (see the Institutes 2.1.8; 2.2.18-25), he also extolled the abilities of unredeemed human reason to obtain truth apart from special revelation. "If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole foundation of truth, we shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it shall appear, unless
we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God" (p. 273). "Shall we say that the philosophers were blind in their fine observation and artful description of nature? ... No, we cannot read the writings of the ancients on these subjects without great admiration" (p. 274). "But if the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics, and other like disciplines, by the work and ministry of the ungodly, let us use this assistance. For ff we neglect God's gaft freely offered in these arts, we ought to suffer justpunishment for our sloths
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Eric L. Johnson (Foundations for Soul Care: A Christian Psychology Proposal)
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By an act of faith the Christian reader today may identify the New Testament, as it has been received, with the entire ‘tradition of Christ’. But confidence in such an act of faith will be strengthened if the same faith proves to have been exercised by Christians in other places and at other times—if it is in line with the traditional ‘criteria of canonicity’. And there is no reason to exclude the bearing of other lines of evidence on any position that is accepted by faith. In
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F.F. Bruce (The Canon of Scripture)
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Die Zeit, dies große Geschenk der Gottheit, von so vielen auf das undankbarste vernachlässigt, muß dem Studierenden kostbarer, als fast jedem andern Stande seyn, vor allen andern aber ist die Periode der akademischen Jahre bis auf die kleinste Minute schätzenswerth und wichtig. [...] Um Zeit zu gewinnen, muß man sie theils dem übermäßigen langen Schlafe entziehn, theils die zu vielen, dem zweckwidrigen Vergnügen bestimmten Stunden aus seinem Plane streichen. Man darf nur täglich zwey Stunden früher als bisher aufstehen, so sind, wenn man vier Jahre auf der Universität zugebracht hat, siebenzehn volle Wochen gewonnen! Ein unendlich wichtiger Zeitüberfluß, binnen vier Jahren siebenzehn Wochen länger zu leben. Besiegt man seine Schlafsucht auch nach Verlauf der akademischen Lebenszeit [...], so lebt man alle zwölf Jahre ein ganzes Jahr länger, und hat drey Jahre mehr Erfahrungen und mehr Kenntnisse gesammelt.
Vertraute Briefe an alle edelgesinnte Jünglinge die auf Universitäten gehen wollen.
Leipzig 1792, S.120ff.
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Carl Heun
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Jesus also contrasts individuality with the spirit of the whole. Whoever (Matthew xii. 31 ff.) blasphemes a man (blasphemes me as the son of man), this sin shall be forgiven him. But whoso blasphemes the spirit itself, the divine, his sin shall not be forgiven either in this time or in the time to come. Out of the abundance of the heart (verse 34) the mouth speaketh; out of the treasure of a good spirit the good man bringeth forth good things, out of the evil spirit the evil man bringeth forth evil. He who blasphemes the individual (i.e., blasphemes me as an individual self) shuts himself out only from me, not from love; but he who sunders himself from God blasphemes nature itself, blasphemes the spirit in nature; his spirit has destroyed its own holiness, and he is therefore incapable of annulling his separation and reuniting himself with love, with holiness. By a sign ye could be shaken, but that would not restore in you the nature ye have lost. The Eumenides of your being could be terrified, but the void left in you by the Daemons thus chased away would not be filled by love. It will only draw your furies back again, and, now strengthened by your very consciousness that they are furies of hell, they complete your destruction.
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
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I still felt a little bit sick for needing the help of a Librarian. It was frustrating. Terribly frustrating. In fact, I don’t think I can accurately—through text—show you just how frustrating it was. But because I love you, I’m going to try anyway. Let’s start by randomly capitalizing letters. “We cAn SenD fOr a draGOn to cArry us,” SinG saId As we burst oUt oF the stAirWeLL and ruSHED tHrough ThE roOm aBovE. “ThAT wILl taKe tOO Long,” BaStiLlE saiD. “We’Ll haVe To graB a VeHiCle oFf thE STrEet,” I sAid. (You know what, that’s not nearly frustrating enough. I’m going to have to start adding in random punctuation marks too.) We c! RoS-Sed thrOu? gH t% he Gra## ND e ` nt < Ry > WaY at “A” de-aD Ru) n. OnC $ e oUts/ iDE, I Co* Uld sEe T ^ haT the suN wa + S nEar to s = Ett = ING—it w.O.u.l.d Onl > y bE a co@ uPle of HoU[ rs unTi ^ L the tR} e} atY RATiF ~ iCATiON ha, pPenEd. We nEeDeD!! to bE QuicK?.? UnFOrTu() nAtelY, tHE! re weRe no C? arriA-ges on tHe rOa ^ D for U/ s to cOmMan > < dEer. Not a ON ~ e ~. THerE w + eRe pe/\ Ople wa | lK | Ing aBoUt, BU? t no caRr# iaGes. (Okay, you know what? That’s not frustrating enough either. Let’s start replacing some random vowels with the letter Q.) I lqOk-eD arO! qnD, dE# sPqrA# te, fRq? sTr/ Ated (like you, hopefully), anD aNn | qYeD. Jq! St eaR& lIer, tHqr ^ E hq.d BeeN DoZen! S of cq? RrIqgEs on The rQA! d! No-W tHqRe wA = Sn’t a SqnGl + e oN ^ q. “ThE_rQ!” I eXclai $ mqd, poIntIng. Mqv = Ing do ~ Wn th_e RqaD! a shoRt diStq + + nCe aWay < wAs > a sTrANgq gLaSs cqnTrAPtion. I waSN’t CqrTain What it wAs >, bUt It w! qs MoV? ing—aND s% qmewhat quIc: =) Kly. “LeT’s G_q gRA? b iT!
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Brandon Sanderson (Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia (Alcatraz, #3))
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The relation between technology and slavery has often been evoked by histo- rians of the ancient world. According to the current opinion, in fact, the striking lack of technological development in the Greek world was due to the ease with which the Greeks, thanks to slavery, could procure manual labor. If Greek mate- rial civilization remained at the stage of the organon, that is, of the utilization of human or animal power by means of a variety of instruments and did not have access to machines, this happened, one reads in a classic work on this argument, “because there was no need to economize on manual labor, since one had access to living machines that were abundant and inexpensive, different from both human and animal: slaves” (Schuhl, pp. 13–14). It does not interest us here to verify the correctness of this explanation, whose limits have been demonstrated by Koyré (pp. 291ff.) and which, like every explanation of that kind, could be easily reversed (one could say just as reasonably, as Aristotle does in the end, that the lack of machines rendered slavery necessary).
What is decisive, rather, from the perspective of our study, is to ask ourselves if between modern technology and slavery there is not a connection more es- sential than the common productive end. Indeed, if it is clear that the machine is presented from its first appearance as the realization of the paradigm of the animate instrument of which the slave had furnished the originary model, it is all the more true that what both intend is not so much, or not only, an increase and simplification of productive labor but also, by liberating human beings from necessity, to secure them access to their most proper dimension—for the Greeks the political life, for the moderns the possibility of mastering the nature’s forces and thus their own.
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Giorgio Agamben (The Omnibus Homo Sacer (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics))
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After a torrent of rapid knocking, Lucy swept past her in the hallway, threw her purse on the table, and landed her ass on the couch before turning expectantly toward Riley and patting the couch next to her. Her dark eyes examined every nuance of Riley’s appearance.
“Okay, dish,” she demanded. “Every last detail.”
Riley rolled her eyes and shook her head as she scooted across the floor in her sock feet. She didn’t feel great, but at least she wasn’t in full torture mode. She thought Lucy might have waited until afternoon instead of showing up at ten-thirty a.m. but what the hell. Her old sweatshirt hugged against her stomach as she pulled her arms together.
“Well,” she feigned ignorance, “what do you want to talk about?”
Lucy slammed her hand on the couch. “Oh, don’t you even. Right now.” She threw herself back against the couch, her face fixed in a not-to-be-toyed-with expression. Riley noted with mild interest how her breasts jiggled inside her white t-shirt. Maybe she was turning into some kind of sex fiend.
“Okay, yes, he sets me on fire. I can’t help it. Blame my gender lineage.”
“I could see he set you fire. Your eyes could hardly look at anything else.” She picked at a tear in her faded jeans then flared back at Riley with an expression of awe. “Of course, my eyes had a few spasms of their own in his direction. Shit, the man is a god. I can’t remember seeing a body that well put together. At least,” she arched her back, “not a male body.”
Riley threw back her head and laughed. Lucy was good tonic, at the very least. “Oh my god, can you stand it?!”
“No—but tell me you didn’t give in, before I pass out.”
“No, we didn’t have sex. But he did kiss me and my panties nearly fell straight to my ankles,” she chuckled. “He stopped himself, thank god, or I would have had him right there on the floor.”
“You were drunk.”
“Oh, yeah, ridiculous drunk. He ordered steaks delivered while he drove me home, and then sliced the steak for me and practically put it in my mouth.” She couldn’t sit still, the memory forcing her up from the couch to pace. She’d spent the entire morning and half the night trying to forget everything about him, and of course the other half had been consumed with remembering everything about him.
“Shit. Fire.” Lucy’s glance followed her. “I want some. Can we have him?
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Lizzie Ashworth (His to Lose (Cannon Cousins, #4))
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the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it knoweth him not; I will not leave you behind as orphans; I come to you and ye shall see me, because I love and ye shall live also.” When ye cease merely to see the divine in me and outside yourselves, when ye have life in yourselves, then will the divine come to consciousness in you also (John xv. 27), because ye have been with me from the beginning, because our natures are one in love and in God. “The spirit will guide you into all truth” (John xvi. 13), and will put you in mind of all things that I have said unto you. He is a Comforter. To give comfort means to give the expectation of a good like the one lost or greater than the one lost; so shall ye not be left behind as orphans, since as much as ye think to lose in losing me, so much shall ye receive in yourselves.
ch 15 - When Peter recognized the divine in the son of man, Jesus expected his friends to be able to realize and bear the thought of their parting from him. Hence he speaks of it to them immediately after he had heard Peter utter his faith. But Peter’s terror of it shows how far his faith was from the culmination of faith. Only after the departure of Jesus’ individual self could their dependence on him cease; only then could a spirit of their own or the divine spirit subsist in them. “It is expedient for you that I go away.” Jesus says (John xvi. 7), “for if I got not away, the Comforter will not come unto you” – the Comforter (John xiv. 16 ff.), “the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it knoweth him not; I will not leave you behind as orphans; I come to you and ye shall see me, because I love and ye shall live also.” When ye cease merely to see the divine in me and outside yourselves, when ye have life in yourselves, then will the divine come to consciousness in you also (John xv. 27), because ye have been with me from the beginning, because our natures are one in love and in God. “The spirit will guide you into all truth” (John xvi. 13), and will put you in mind of all things that I have said unto you. He is a Comforter. To give comfort means to give the expectation of a good like the one lost or greater than the one lost; so shall ye not be left behind as orphans, since as much as ye think to lose in losing me, so much shall ye receive in yourselves.
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
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René Laurentin has tried to show that Luke’s infancy narrative follows a precise chronology, according to which from the moment of the annunciation to Zechariah until the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, 490 days elapsed, that is to say seventy weeks of seven days each (cf. Structure et Théologie, pp. 49ff.). Whether Luke consciously adopted this chronology must remain an open question.
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Pope Benedict XVI (Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives)
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Human imagination, however, involves some quasi-rational activity, for humans are not just moved by imagination’s products, but judge and form opinions about them. Human imagination is what Aristotle calls “deliberative” (bouleutik or logistik): “Imagination in the form of sense exists, as we have said [in De anima III, ii], in other animals, but deliberative imagination only in those which can reason” (De anima, III, xi, 434a 5ff.). Pure sensation is always true, enjoying something of the status which contemporary philosophers accord to what some of them call “raw feels”; but imagination can be false.31 It is therefore a more rationalizing activity than the elementary sensory receptiveness of the common sense.
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Mary Carruthers (The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature 70))
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Adsense ads match that, but I saw a nice increase when I changed the ad titles to the old standard Link Blue (aka #0000FF).
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Bob Lotich (How To Make Money Blogging: How I Replaced My Day-Job With My Blog)
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Every single person on this planet has a relationship with God. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1267-1267 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 7:09:31 AM what happens when a man with an unclean spirit meets the One anointed with God’s Spirit. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1268-1268 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 7:09:56 AM Mark shows that Jesus teaches with unique authority, unlike and indeed surpassing that of the scribes ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1269-1269 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 7:10:08 AM The second part is an account of an exorcism (vv. 23-26). ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1270-1271 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 7:11:18 AM The combined stories demonstrate that Jesus’ word is deed. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1293-1294 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 7:16:33 AM Jewish synagogues, according to rabbinic nomenclature, were “assembly halls” or auditoriums where the Torah was read and expounded. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1329-1330 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:00:12 AM Every instance of exousia therefore reflects either directly or indirectly the authority of Jesus. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1331-1332 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:00:39 AM his authority over the highest authorities in both the temporal realm, as represented by the scribes, and the supernatural authorities, as represented by the demon in l:23ff. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1332-1334 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:01:04 AM The scribes derive their authority from the “tradition of the elders” (7:8-13) — the fathers of Judaism, we might say; whereas Jesus receives his authority directly from the Father in heaven (1:11). ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1334-1335 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:01:12 AM contingent on the authority of the Torah and hence a mediated authority; ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1335-1335 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:01:20 AM Jesus appeals to an immediate and superior authority resident in himself that he received at his baptism. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1337-1338 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:01:49 AM Jesus’ teaching is qualitatively different, “not as the teachers of the law.” ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1346-1346 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:03:40 AM does not recount the content of the teaching. The accent falls rather on Jesus the teacher. ========== The Gospel according to Mark (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Edwards Jr., James R.) - Your Highlight on Location 1349-1350 | Added on Friday, February 13, 2015 10:04:30 AM In the Gospel of Mark the person of Jesus is more important than the subject of his teaching. If we want to know what the gospel or teaching of Jesus consists of, we are directed to its embodiment in Jesus the teacher. ========== The Gospel
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Anonymous
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Faith for the appropriation of God's promised blessings is the result of knowing and acting on God's Word (Romans 10:17).
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F.F. Bosworth (Christ the Healer)
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Sex is glorious not only because it reflects the joy of the Trinity but also because it points to the eternal delight of soul that we will have in heaven, in our loving relationships with God and one another. Romans 7:1ff tells us that the best marriages are pointers to the deep, infinitely fulfilling, and final union we will have with Christ in love. No wonder, as some have said, that sex between a man and a woman can be a sort of embodied out-of-body experience. It’s the most ecstatic, breathtaking, daring, scarcely-to-be-imagined look at the glory that is our future.
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Timothy J. Keller (The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God)
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The Genesis account of the advent of mankind (Adam-man) is far more eloquent and significant than a casual reading of the passage in English might suggest. In this majestic “Poem of the Dawn” or “Hymn of Creation” (cf. H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology, Vol. I, Nazarene Publishing House, Kansas City, Mo., pp. 450 ff.), the metaphorical use of the terms “dust,” “image,” “likeness,” “create,” “made,” “breath of life,” and others, contributes much to biblical understanding of man, sin, redemption, holiness, and all the implications of “grace” in relation to man. The writer of the Genesis story chose his words carefully. In 1:26 he tells us that God said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness,” and (1:27) then, “God created man in his own image … male and female created he them.” Strangely, the second account (Genesis 2) introduces a most mundane and earthy note to the almost too idealistic and incredible first description. “The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [‘lives, ’ Hebrew plural, here]; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7; RSV). Note the progress; formed, breathed into, and then the process of becoming. There will be no attempt made here to formulate any theory of man's appearance on earth. These terms are noted to suggest that the wording gives room for more than one interpretation. However, no attempt to interpret these passages from the standpoint of modern science should be permitted to obscure the main ideas proposed in Genesis 1—2. This is not a scientific account nor was it in any sense intended to be. The role of science is to unpack all the facts possible which are built into man and his history and world. But the meaning of man and his universe must be derived from another source. And it is this meaning that the biblical story seeks to impart. This starkly beautiful, unembroidered introduction to man as made in his Creator's image establishes the fundamental religious meaning of man as he stands in relationship to God and to nature. This noble concept must precede and throw light upon all that the Hebraic-Christian teaching will assume about man—a sinful creature as of now, yet created in the Imago Dei.
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Mildred Bangs Wynkoop (A Theology of Love)
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In the late 2nd century A.D., a senatorial decree allowed for the granting of a bonus of five hundred sestertii to a victorious gladiator if he was a free man, and of four hundred if he was a slave (Select Latin Inscriptions 5163.29ff.), the amount that a schoolteacher might make in a year (Juvenal Satires 7.242).
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J.C. McKeown (A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the World's Greatest Empire)
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Just look at the problems James dealt with and you can see that each of them is characteristic of little children: • Impatience in difficulties—1:1–4 • Talking but not living the truth—2:14ff. • No control of the tongue—3:1ff. • Fighting and coveting—4:1ff. • Collecting material “toys”—5:1ff.
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Warren W. Wiersbe (Be Mature (James): Growing Up in Christ (The BE Series Commentary))
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Paul reflects on his previous statement of the one way of salvation from sin by the propitiatory death of Christ, which avails for all who believe (Rom. 3:21ff.). Justification is received only by faith and is grounded on what Christ did once for all in his death and resurrection (4:25). Paul’s point is that we are not addressed merely as discrete individuals; instead, we are placed by God in solidaristic groups or teams. Adam was head or captain of a team of which we all were members. His sin plunged the whole team into sin, ruin, death, and condemnation. What Christ did for us was also done as the head of a team of which we are part. He did it on our behalf, for us—and God reckons it to our account as a result of our being united, through faith, with him as the head of the team. Our justification is therefore grounded on union with Christ.
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Anonymous
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In Romans 6:1ff., in answer to charges that his gospel encourages moral indifference, Paul insists that believers, the justified, live to Christ and do not give themselves over to sin. This is because they died with Christ to sin and rose again to new life in his resurrection. Not only did Christ die and rise again for them, but they died and rose with him. Union with Christ is the foundational basis for sanctification and the dynamic force that empowers it. As Paul says, “Do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death; we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so we too should live in newness of life” (6:3–4).
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Anonymous
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By creating the Third Order, though, Francis did accept the distinction between radical commitment and the necessity of living in the world. The point of the Third Order is to accept with humility the task of one’s secular profession and its requirements, wherever one happens to be, while directing one’s whole life to that deep interior communion with Christ that Francis showed us. “To own goods as if you owned nothing” (cf. 1 Cor 7:29ff.)—to master this inner tension, which is perhaps the more difficult challenge, and, sustained by those pledged to follow Christ radically, truly to live it out ever anew—that is what the third orders are for. And they open up for us what this Beatitude can mean for all.
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Pope Benedict XVI (Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration)
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Great Babylon” (16:19): though Babylon is not mentioned in Scripture between Genesis 11:9 (Babel is the Hebrew name for Bab-ili, which we render Babylon) and the days of Hezekiah, it had its own position in Hebrew thought. Though it had little political importance between its capture by the Kassites in 1530 BC and its being made the capital of a Chaldean empire in 626 BC, it was the virtually undisputed commercial and religious capital of the Fertile Crescent. So it is the personification, so to speak, for the Bible, of humanity organized for financial profit, and of manmade religion in all its attractive sophistry. These are the two aspects which are dealt with in chapters 17 (religion) and 18 (commerce). If we compare Nahum and Habakkuk, we shall learn something of the different impression created by the pride and cruelty of Assyria and the corruption of human nature which the prophet saw in Babylon.
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F.F. Bruce (The Open Your Bible New Testament Commentary: Page by Page (Open Your Bible Commentary Book 2))
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And as in Romans 3: 21 the "but now!" of the revelation of the righteousness of God by faith is the redeeming word in man's situation of death under the guilt of sin and the condemning force of the law, so the "now therefore" of Romans 8:1ff. is the word of liberation for man under the power of sin and under the impotent regime of the law which cannot conquer the flesh. The antithesis between the law and the Spirit is thus not situated in the fact that the Spirit places himself over against the content and demand of the law. Rather, the object of the sending of Christ and of the Spirit represented by him is that the just demand of the law should be fulfilled, completed, finished, not only in Christ, but also in us (Rom. 8: 4).
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Herman N. Ridderbos (Paul: An Outline of His Theology)