A Remarkable Man

Sir Sandford Fleming is a fantastic example of how God has used His people to change the world.

“He took the first soundings of Toronto harbour and beaches, then wrote papers on the geologic history of Lake Ontario and its successive prehistoric ledges. He lithographed other surveys of Ontario towns, selling copies both remarkably accurate and artful. He was a fine amateur artist and often illustrated his own work. He built railroads, designed and engrave the first Canadian postage stamp, and founded the Canadian Institute, He wrote a dozen books, served thirty-five years as titular Chancellor of Queen’s University in Kingston, devised and facilitated world standard time, and finally, the world-circling sub-Pacific cable, which earned him knighthood in 1897.”

Clark Blaise, Time Lord: The Remarkable Canadian Who Missed His Train, and Changed the World. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2000, p. xiv.

Zechariah 13:7-9

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones. In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive. And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” (Zechariah 13:7-9)

8.8.8

Wow.

I'm watching the Summer Olympics opening ceremony in China. It is simply stunning.

The Written Word

"People like ourselves may see nothing wondrous in writing, but our anthropologists know how strange and magical it appears to a purely oral people - a conversation with no one and yet with everyone. What could be stranger than the silence one encounters when addressing a question to a text? What could be more metaphysically puzzzling than addressing an unseen audience, as every writer of books must do? And correcting oneself because one knows that an unknown reader will disapprove or misunderstand?"

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, (1985) 2nd ed. New York: Penguin, 2005, p. 13.

Sinner's translation

Luther used three essential words to describe a sinner’s ‘translation’ from the kingdom of sin and death to the kingdom of righteousness and life – Christ, faith, and imputation. Christ alone is righteous before the heavenly Father. Christ takes your sin with its killing judgments and covers it so the Father forgets it. When the heavenly Father then comes to judge you at the last day He beholds only His Son, and what His Son imputes, or applies to you , is His own righteousness. You do not see this in the form of holiness in your own self. Faith alone clings to Christ.

Steven Paulson, Luther for Armchair Theologians. Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, 2004, pp. 26-27.

Isaiah 45:5-7

I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does al these things.

Isaiah 45:5-7

Graduate's Prayer

Father, I have knowledge,
so You will show me now
How to use it wisely
and find a way somehow
To make the world I live in a little better place,
And make life with its problems a bit easier to face...
Grant me faith and courage
and put purpose in my days,
And show me how to serve Thee in the most effective ways
So all my education, my knowledge and my skill,
May find their true fulfillment as I learn to do Thy Will...
And may I ever be aware in everything I do
That knowledge comes from learning-
and wisdom comes from You.