Port and Starboard

348.  chariots of fire

The great prophet Elijah did not dies, according to 2 Kings 2.  He was with his successor, the prophet Elisha, when "suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven"  (V.11).  Chariots of fire appeared for Elisha in another incident.  He was wanted by the king of Aram, who sent a mighty force to capture him.  Elisha's servant saw the Aramaean troops coming and was terrified.  Elisha said to him,  "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."  And then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he saw that "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. "  This story is one of th eBible's most vivid reminders that there indeed are angels who protect God's people (2Kings 6:8-18).

Star of Virginia

672.  halo

Why do works of art often depict saints and angels with rings of light around their heads?  A halo  (also called a nimbbus)  is an old symbol of divinity, glory, or holiness.  The halo is a way of saying,  "This person [or being] is special in a sacred way."  Halos are never mentioned in the Bible, however. 

Ocean Wave

667.  Michael, Row the Boat Ashore"

This old black spiritual is addressed to the angel Michael.  According to tradition (*thoughnot the Bible itself), the angel Michael is the guide of departed souls to heaven.  Thus in the song, Michael guides the person's soul across the river Jordan  (representing death)  to the shore (heaven).  One verse of the song is "Jordan's river is chilly and wide, /  Milk and honey on the other side,"  Of course, this song sung by slaves might have had another meaning: a plea to be taken across the river (the Ohio, that is) into the nonslaveholding states. 

Simple Flower Basket

198.  Abbadon

This Hebrew word means "destruction" or "ruin."  It is found untranslated in Revelation 9:11, where it is the name of the angle of the bottomless pit.  But in the Old Testament, it is not the name of an angel but of a place, often translated as "hell" or "destruction."  Clearly, with such a name the angel of the bottomless pit is a nasty character.  Milton, in his Paradise Lost, used the name Abaddon for the bottomless pit itself. 

Underground Railroad

956.  the road to hell

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions"--the proverb is used commonly, but who said it first?  The English author and dictionary compiler Samuel Johnson said that "hell is paved with good intentions," and somehow "the road to" got added on later.  It reflects a basic Christian idea:  People can do much evil while thinking they are doing good...

Summer Winds

846.  Stay Tuned

Is hell a series of sadistic TV shows where one is punished by being "channel surfed" from one torturous program to another?  It is in this off-the-wall 1992 comedy, with John Ritter as a couch potato who is sucked in by a satellite dish from hell (literally).  The movies shows that people who neglect their real-life families for TV fantasies will be punished by losing their souls in some very unpleasant programs--forever.  Some inside jokes:  One of the demons is named Crowley and some of the shows are I Love Lucifer and Waynes's Underworld.

Summer Solstice

869.  Summerland

New Agers sometimes refer to the afterlife as "heaven," but for a time the term "Summerland" was popular.  The name comes from the writings of Swedish author Emanuel Swedenborg.

Ladie's Aid Album

391.  Tundal the monk

Many Christians have written books or painted pictures depicting the horrors of hell.  Perhaps none are more vivid than the writings of the Irish monk Tundal, who lived in the twelfth century.  Tundal claimed to have had visions of hell.  In the center of it, he said, Satan was fastened with red-hot chains to a burning gridiron, but his hands were free to grab hold of sinners.  With his teeth he crushed them, afterward swallowing them down his burning throat.  Other demons plunged hell's inhabitants into fire then into icy water, or beat them into flatness on an anvil.  To make the fiery place even more repugnant, sulfur added its foul stench to the air.  Hell was full of fire, yet the fire gave no light, so the people suffered in thick darkness.  While the Catholic church authorities sometimes questioned such visions (realizing that it was easy to go over borad and emphasize hell more than heaven), descriptions such as Tundal's had a great effect on peoples's imagination.  The Vision of Tundal, written around 1149, was translated into at least fifteen languages, and some of the copies were lavishly (and frighteningly) illustrated.

New England Block

111.  angels, not evangelists

Angels in the Bible do many things to benefit human beings, including announcing the birth of the Savior  (Luke 2)  But there is one distinctive activity that angles do not do; preach the gospel.  One example: Acts 10 tells us of the righteous Roman soldier Cornelius (see 110), who was told by an angel to send for the apostle Peter, the man who would preach to him the gospel.  Why didn't the angel himself present the gospel?  This never happens i the Bible, nor anywhere in Christian history.  The gospel is the good news of sinners being saved from their sin--something the angels cannot experience themselves.  Only a saved sinner can preach the gospel to sinners.

Peace and Plenty

110.  Cornelius and Peter

One of the most appealing characters in the New Testament is Cornelius, a Roman centurion.  Acts 10 describes him as "one who feared God," which meant he practiced a Jewish spirituality, including prayer and aiding the poor.  Acts 10 relates his being visited by an angel, who told him that his kindness and good works had not gone unnoticed by God.  The angel linked him with the apostle Peter.  After his meeting with Peter, he becames a Christian, the first Roman convert to the faith.

Next Door Neighbor

37.  Our Lady of the Angels

The Roman Catholic Church holds a much higher view of the Virgin Mary than do Protestants, and some Catholics refer to her as Queen of Heaven or Our Lady Queen of the Angels.  She is sometimes pictured in Catholic art as a crowned figure surrounded by adoring choirs of angles.  As Queen of the Angels, Mary is sometimes prayed to, with people asking her aid in sending the angels to ward off some evil.

The Hen and Her Chicks

36.  Mary and purgatory

"Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."  This is a Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary, probably one of the most repeated prayers in the history of the world.  In the Middle Ages, as belief in purgatory became more and more widespread, Mary took on a new and enhanced role.  She, more so than Christ Himself, was the one who could soften a soul's punishment and time in purgatory.  While Christ was thought of as the just Judge o human sins, Mary played the role of comforter, who could lessen the punishments of those who prayed to her.  As belief in purgatory became more important in the church's life, so did devotion to the Virgin Mary.  When the Protestant Reformation came along in the 1500s, the Reformers attacked both the belief in purgatory and also the excessive devotion to Mary.

Double Sawtooth

148.  Satan and married celibates

The Christians in Corinth lived in a city known for sexual looseness.  No wonder Paul had much to say about sexual morality.  Whiule he himself preferred the single (and celibate) life, he knew it wasn't for everyone.  He took a sensible approach to married life, assuming that physical intimacy was normal.  Apparently some of the Corinthian Christians were attempting to be celibate while married, but Paul advised against this:  "Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control" (1 Cor. 7:5)

and That's all I'm going to say about That!

Broken Star

147.  the God of peace, crushing

Near the end of his letter to the Romans, Paul gave this promise: "The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly" (16:20).  The wording strikes some readers as almost humorous: The "God of peace" is going to "crush" someone?  Yet it makes perfect sense, in a way.  The world can never have perfect peace as long as Satan is able to go about doing mischieft.  Yet soon, Paul said, Satan's shenanigans will end abruptly, and peace will reign through the mercies of God.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

(thank yoy sister)

King's Crown II

1.  "literal" hell and heaven?

Is hell a hot furnace?  Is heaven a cloudy place with harps and golden streets?  The Bible says little about the physical attributes of either place.  The book of Revelation pictures heaven as a praise-filled city with streets of gold and pearly gates.  Revelation uses these images to communicate the ideas of beauty and fellowship with God.  Revelation also refers to the devil and evil people being destroyed in a lake of fire.  Jesus Himself spoke of the fire of hell--the idea being that the person apart from God is in agony.  Is it a "literal" fire?  That question misses the point.  The point is that the person who chooses to separate himself from 

God is in the worst possible circumstance.

Hopscotch

#86  Ezekiel's living creatures
The book of the prophet Ezekiel opens with a bang, the prophet's bizarre vision of four unearthly beings.  In the midst of an ominous whirlwind were "four living creatures."  They were human in shape, but each one had four wings, and their feet were like calves' feet.  They sparkled like burnished bronze.  Each had four faces: a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle.  They moved, and they gave the impression of fire and lightning.  More impressive than the creatures was the glory of the Lord Himself above them.  This stunning vision caused Ezekiel to fall on his face, whereupon the Lord commissioned him as a prophet to the people of Israel.  We learn in Ezekiel 10 that these "living creatures" are cherubim and the guardians of the Lord's throne.  Since this vision took place in Babylon, where Ezekiel was in exile, one message seems to be that the Lord's throne is anywhere He wishes it to be, not necessarily tied to a location in Israel.

Does Double Duty

378.  Anthony the hermit (c. 300)
Anthony, a wealthy Egyptian, experienced a spiritual crisis when he heard a sermon on Jesus' command to the rich youg ruler:  "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor" (matt. 19:21).  Anthony gave away his land and donated his money to the poor.  He lived a simple life, sleeping on the ground and existing on one meal a day (bread and water).  He lived for years in an abandoned fort, yet he attracted followers, who believed Christianity had become worldly and materialistic (it had).  The Egyptian wasteland was wild and desolate, but not empty, for Anthony claimed it was filled with demons.  He spoke about how he did battle with all sorts of ghastly devils.  Thanks to the popularity of the Life of Anthony, and thanks to the challenge of painting a saint afflicted by monstrous demons, Anthony has been the subject of thousands upon thousands of paintings.  The life of self-denial and resisting demons must have been healthy.  Anthony lived to be 105.

Foxy Grandpa

1,001 things you always wanted to know about Angels, Demons, and the Afterlife

J. Stephen Lang

274.  The best inheritance

The New Testament often contrast eternal treasure with the worthless treasures we pursue on earth.  For those who believe in Christ, there is "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you"  (1Peter 1:4).

Father's Choice

She walks in Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

This mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less.

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Lord Byron (George Gordon)

Chocolove bar

PRETZEL

Pretzel

from  The First Kiss of Love

Away with your fiction of flimsy romance,

Those tissues of falsehood which folly has wove!

Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,

Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.

Ye rhymers, whose bosoms with phantasy glow,

Whose pastoral passions are made for the grove;

From what blest inspiration  your sonnets would flow,

Could you ever tasted the first kiss love!

If Apollo should e'er his assistance refuse,

Or the Nine be disposed from your service to rove,

Invoke them no more, bid adieu to the muse,

And try the effect of the first kiss of love.

George  Gordon Lord Byron

another chocolove bar

Double Basket Weave

Whatever truth promises, 

Count it as money

in your pocket.

6/5/2009

from my Dad