10-year-old AA Hodge's "Letter to the Heathen"

Dear Heathen:

The Lord Jesus Christ hath promised that the time shall come when all the ends of the earth shall be His kingdom. And God is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent. And if this was promised by a Being who cannot lie, why do you not help it to come sooner by reading the Bible, and attending to the words of your teachers, and loving God, and, renouncing your idols, take Christianity into your temples? And soon there will not be a Nation, no, not a space of ground as large as a footstep, that will want a missionary. My sister and myself have, by small self-denials, procured two dollars which are enclosed in this letter to buy tracts and Bibles to teach you.

Archibald Alexander Hodge, and [sister] Mary Eliz. Hodge, June 23, 1833
Friends of the Heathen.

[painting: St Boniface Felling Thor's Tree unknown artist]

IMAGINE ... Postmillenialism

As many of you [well - okay - both of my readers] may know, my eschatology is from that row in the garden with 'postmil' sharpied on the Popsicle stick.  It used to be the standard pre-trib, pre-mil variety, but after years of Reformed teaching and a growing familiarity with the Psalms as sung and read in worship at church and home, I find myself optimistic for the very long-term.  I respect others who differ, but agree that among friends, laughable ideas ought to be laughed at ... at least every once in a while.  So in the spirit of giving ideas their due, here's a funny little rendition of John Lennin's lyrically-horrific song, Imagine, that we whipped together for the St. George's Festival hosted by All Saints Church at Lancaster this weekend.  There is a video of me singing it somewhere out there, so maybe I'll post that at some point too.

Imagine there's no rapture;
no Left Behind;
no Harold Camping;
no Thief in the Night;
Imagine all the steeples filling the landscape ...

Imagine no Hal Lindsey;
it's easy if you try [go on and try];
no Jack Van Impe;
no unmanned airplanes in the sky;
Imagine Jesus' kingdom, going all the way ...

You may say I'm a dreamer, a mini Keith Mathison.
I hope some day you will join us, in a right reading of The Revelation.

You may say I'm a dreamer, like that old Doug Wilson,
I hope some day you will join us, cuz the Lamb will overcome.

Really Good Friday Meditation

Found here.

What I've been reading lately [Book List] ...

You are what your mind eats ...

2 SOLID GOLD NUGGETS to get you going

#1:  There are 2 ways to fail:  1. Omission ... and 2. Commission.  Which one do you prefer?

#2:  When a large survey of seniors over the age of 65 asked what they would have done differently if they had their lives to live over again, the top 3 answers were:

1.  I would have left more [of a legacy] behind
2.  I would have stopped to smell the roses more [enjoy your wife and little ones]
3.  I would have taken that risk

The other, and much more frightening Recession

"The difference between right and wrong is fast receding. Awareness is being diluted, people are just saying 'such is life'. People are like this now."

- Denis Avey, a British WW2 POW, who used cigarettes to bribe prison camp guards in order to infiltrate Auschwitz, not once - but twice, and witness the conditions first-hand.  "My life depended on 50 cigarettes -- 25 in, 25 out."  His story has only recently gained attention and is the subject of the forthcoming nonfiction work, 'The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz'. 

The Other George Grant

“Perhaps we are lacking the recognition that our response to the whole world should not most deeply be that of doing, . . . but that of wondering or marveling at what is, being amazed or astonished by it, or perhaps best, in a discarded English usage, admiring it.”

- George Parkin Grant