August 2011
1 post
The Sun Has Risen Today, Again →
June 2011
1 post
January 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Lost in the Lost World
Did you ever notice that no chapter in the Bible contains a neat outline of all the elements of the gospel? Did you ever wonder why? After all, it would make evangelism so much easier. But that is just the point. We would all plug that chapter in as a super method. And God wants us to see that the gospel is the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation.
Allen Harris, Know The News
December 2010
16 posts
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“With each new dawn, life delivers a package to your front door, rings your...”
– Charles Swindoll
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Joy Has Dawned Upon the World →
Joy has dawned upon the world, Promised from creation— God’s salvation now unfurled, Hope for ev’ry nation. Not with fanfares from above, Not with scenes of glory, But a humble gift of love— Jesus born of Mary.
Joy Has Dawned Upon the World Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
3 tags
“The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear...”
– Isaiah 7:14
Spotting everyday ordinary miracles
And the shepherds. Peasants they were. Probably wearing all the clothes they owned. Smelling like sheep and looking just as woolly. They were conscientious, willing to spend the night with their flocks. But you won’t find their staffs in a museum nor their writings in a library. No one asked their opinion on social justice or the application of the Torah. They were nameless and simple.
An...
4 tags
Culture delineates what citizenship cannot
“Do you miss your mother, Eliot, these afternoons with me?”
The thought had never occurred to him.
“You must miss her. When I think of you, only a boy, separated from your mother for so much of the day, I am ashamed.”
“I see her at night.”
“When I was your age I was without knowing that one day I would be so far. You are wiser than that, Eliot. You...
2 tags
“We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are...”
– 2 Corinthians 3:18
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“First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds...”
– Peter Ellis, as posted in alt.fan.pratchett (via lexicogging)
“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born...”
– Pearl S. Buck (via mlq3)
3 tags
One of my favorite pianists.
Wonderwall Brad...
“Hold! You crafty ones, strangers to work, and pilferers of other men’s brains....”
– [This] caution to the literary pirates of his day is appended by Albert Diirer to his edition of Epitome in diva; parthenices Maria, folio. Nuremberg, 1511 (via lexicogging)
5 tags
Reflections of a reluctant first-worlder
Unhappiness on earth cultivates a hunger for heaven. By gracing us with a deep dissatisfaction, God holds our attention. The only tragedy, then, is to be satisfied prematurely. To settle for earth. To be content in a strange land.
-Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name
So this is Christmas
Stepping from the throne, he removed his robe of light and wrapped himself in skin: pigmented, human skin. The light of the universe entered a dark, wet womb. He whom angels worship nestled himself in the placenta of a peasant, was birthed into the cold night, and then slept on cow’s hay.
Mary didn’t know whether to give him milk or give him praise, but she gave him both since he was,...
“Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and...”
– Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Custom-House
“Who has never killed an hour? Not casually or without thought, but carefully: a...”
– Mark Z. Danielewski (via mlq3)
September 2010
1 post
“I agree that it’s getting more difficult to think of what to give people...”
– Norma Miraflor One Woman’s Opinion
August 2010
4 posts
Modern Martha Stewart →
Who knew Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog would be so delightful and practical? Until now I thought all celebrities did online was talk about themselves.
3 tags
WatchGod’s Word is alive, but this kind of creativity makes it come alive for this generation.
fishforpeople:
Psalm 74:16
- Made in Flash - Interact with it! For Jesus
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Found in a question too daunting (haunting)
Go into yourself. Search for the reason that bids you write, find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were denied you to write. This above all—ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write? Delve into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you...
6 tags
“Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one...”
– Erin McKean, lexicographer
July 2010
18 posts
4 tags
WatchBeautiful, just beautiful.
fishforpeople:
Something a little different for you… (hint: rollover the flowers)
Isaiah 40:8
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“One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones...”
– Hart Crane, poet (1899-1932) (via lexicogging)
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Found in a tangle of threaded lives
Meme felt the weight of his hand on her knee and she knew that they were both arriving at the other side of abandonment at that instant.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
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New dictionary, fun (and funky) words →
Behind this new break-out online dictionary is Erin McKean. I watched her TED Talk about lexicography: funny and witty in a way that only a person working with dictionaries 8-to-5 can be. I’ve always loved words, but Erin got me excited about them. (Plus, she’s so cute and geeky she lends her cuddliness to dictionaries.)
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Complete text of Pres. Aquino's first SONA →
Handa na ba kayong maglaan ng kongkretong mungkahi, sa halip na pawang batikos lamang?
Pres. Aquino, in his State of the Nation Address, said this to the CPP-NPA, but he could very well say it to all of us. Our collective complaints have become our crutch, and the convenience is dumbing us all down.
Complete speech, with English translation.
A short story →
Once in a while you encounter a little thing that restores your faith in the whole thing.
This short story is my little thing today. It is one of the finest I’ve read in a long time, and it made me reflect on how beautiful the short story structure is. Its brevity, its succinctness; how no word, no element, is wasted, no movement arbitrary.
A Temporary Matter, the first in Jhumpa...
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Found in a million and one insights
Works of art are of an infinite loneliness and with nothing so little to be reached as with criticism. Only love can grasp and hold and be just toward them.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet Translation by M.D. Herter Norton
A priceless book from a second-hand bookstore—best nine pesos I’ve ever spent.
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Found in what would've been my words had I been...
Inisip ko, pinalambot ng magaspang na kamay ni Nanay ang unan sa ulo ko. Ang manok na nilaga. Ang kutson sa upuan. Ang medyas at kamiseta ni Tatay. Ang lupang batuhan. Pati lumang pandesal lumambot din.
Pumunta ako kay nanay at humawak sa kamay niya. Pakiramdam ko, kahit kailan, ayaw ko nang bumitiw pa.
Papel de Liha, Ompong Remigio
1995 Palanca Award, First Prize, Short Story for...
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Found in a half-chewed thought
If every second of our lives recurs an infinite number of times, we are nailed to eternity as Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross. It is a terrifying prospect. In the world of eternal return the weight of unbearable responsibility lies heavy on every move we make. …
Conversely, the absolute absence of a burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into the heights, take leave of the...
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Found in the words we don't say
Writing a Resume Wislawa Szymborska
What needs to be done? Fill out the application and enclose the resume. Regardless of the length of life, a resume is best kept short. Concise, well-chosen facts are de rigueur. Landscapes are replaced by addresses, shaky memories give way to unshakable dates. Of all your loves, mention only the marriage; of all your children, only those who were born. Who...
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Found in a sea of beautiful words
He folded his fear into a perfect rose. He held it out in the palm of his hand. She took it from him and put it in her hair.
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
How sad that this is Roy’s only novel to date. She has the gift of language, and I would have loved to enter more of her universes.
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Found in a (mis)judged-by-the-cover book
We live in a Christian culture so deeply committed to a nonintellectual way of understanding Christian faith that this perspective is now imbedded (sic) within us at a subconscious level. You didn’t misread. Our underlying ideas about Christianity affect how we think church should be, what a good sermon is, what is worth giving our money to, how we should raise our families, where we go to...
6 tags
Found in an oxymoron: a feminist Tagalog romance
Ang babae, kahit na maraming sinasabi, minsan ay wala talagang sinasabi. O iba ang sinasabi. Maaaring ikwento niya sa kapitbahay o kaibigan kung paano siya napaso ng mantika habang nagpiprito, kung paano tumigil ng pagtulo ang tubig sa gripo habang naglalaba.
Pero hindi ang mga ito ang kanyang gustong ikwento. Ang totoo, kung ano pa talaga ang dapat niyang ikwento, ay siya pang hindi niya...
5 tags
Found in an old treasure trove
Cat in an Empty Apartment By Wislawa Szymborska, Polish Nobel Prize-winning poet (1996) Translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak
Dying—you wouldn’t do that to a cat. For what is a cat to do in an empty apartment? Climb up the walls? Brush up against the furniture? Nothing here seems changed, and yet something has changed. Nothing has been moved, and yet there’s more room....
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Watch2010 TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver: I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again, and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.
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Found in a half-forgotten halfway-read book
She was proud of what she had accomplished, of the life she had led, but her life was over, and it was time to go. That was a fact she had decided months ago—knew it for certain—yet here she was, hanging around like somebody’s forgotten holiday wreath, still on the front door in March.
Andy Andrews, The Noticer
September 2009
1 post
Try
Just like the John Mayer Trio album, this is a TRY!