SPECIAL ENON BIRTHDAY: Happy Birthday Ann Knight!
BIRTHDAYS: James Fennimore Cooper, 1789; William Howard Taft, 1857; Agatha Christie, 1890; Roy Acuff, 1903; Robert McCLoskey (children's author), 1914; Jackie Cooper, 1922; Bobby Short, 1926; Norm Crosby, 1927; Tomie Depaola (children's author and illustrator), 1934; Gaylord Perry, 1938; Merlin Olsen, 1940; Tommy Lee Jones, 1946; Oliver Stone, 1946; Joe Morris, 1960; Dan Marino, 1961; Prince Harry of Wales, 1984.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1777 British General John Burgoyne's army of more than 6,000 crossed the Hudson River on a bridge of boats and headed for Saratoga. In a month of fighting, after suffering defeat in 2 battles, Burgoyne surrendered to the patriots. His army was marched to Boston and put aboard ships bound for England.
On this date in 1789 Congress changed the name of the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Department of State.
On this date in 1821 Costa Rica gained its independence from Spain.
On this date in 1867 the man who would serve 4 years as U.S. President and 9 years as Chief Justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, was born.
On this date in 1917 Russia was proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky.
On this date in 1949 the first computer calculation of Pi was made.
On this date in 1971 the Forest Service introduced Woodsy Owl and the slogan "Give a Hoot; Don't Pollute."
On this date in 1971 the environmental organization, Greenpeace, was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia.
On this date in 1984 Montague, Mich., dedicated the world's largest weather vane -- 48 feet high and 3,500 pounds.
MEANINGLESS FACTS: Leonberg Castle of Italy has been occupied by the same family (Brandis) for over 800 years... Edwin Norris (1795-1872), famed British linguist, translated the entire Bible into Portuguese, Maori, Spanish, Persian, French, Arabic, Accra, Aneitum, Otji, Bulgarian, and Italian... The "Rev." Timothy Dwight (1752-1617), founder of Dwight Academy in Greenfield, Conn., was named President at Yale in 1795 -- because his little academy was growing so fast that it was threatening to eclipse the College. Believe it, or not.
TRIVIA: Who (in the Bible) gave a priest a suit of clothes every year?
David T. Scoates said, "It is always too soon to quit." In every noble and proper endeavor may we give our very best. A wonderful Saturday to each of you!
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I direct your attention to the following 2 links as being most appropriate:
A Tribute to Firefighters http://www.jjab.com/firefighters.php3
God Bless America http://www.jjab.com/godbless.php3
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From a friend: LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EMPLOYEES
For the chronically absent:
"A man
like him is hard to find."
"It
seemed his career was just taking off."
For the
office drunk:
"I feel
his real talent is wasted here."
"We
generally found him loaded with work to do."
For an
employee with no ambition:
"He
could not care less about the number of hours he had to put in."
"You
would indeed be fortunate to get this person to work for you."
"He
consistently achieves the low standards he sets for himself."
For an
employee who is so unproductive that the job is better left unfilled:
"I can
assure you that no person would be better for the job."
For an
employee who is not worth further consideration as a job candidate:
"I would
urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of employment."
"All
in all, I cannot say enough good things about this candidate or recommend
him too highly."
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From The SUSQUEHANNA SENTINEL, an article by C.R. Johnson --
WHEN SHALL THESE THINGS BE?
In this
lesson, we will look at one of the most interesting, most quoted from,
and yet most misunderstood passages in the New Testament -- Matthew, chapter
24. Chapter 24 of the book of Matthew parallels Mark chapter 13 and Luke
chapter 21. This speech of
Jesus,
as He sat on the Mount of Olives, took place on Tuesday before He was crucified
on Friday. When He had entered the city for Passover week on Sunday a few
days before this speech, He had looked down upon the city and wept audibly.
Jerusalem, the city that had killed the prophets and stoned those God has
sent to lead them, was soon to crucify God’s Son. Consequently, within
that generation, Jerusalem itself would be leveled to the ground, temple
and all. A similar lament is found in Matthew chapter 23, leading up to
the chapter we will now examine.
"Then
Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came to
Him to show Him the beautiful buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to
them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one
stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’
Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately
saying, ‘Tell us when will these things be? And what will be the sign of
Your coming, and of the end of the age?’ And Jesus answered and said to
them, ‘Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name,
saying, "I am the Christ," and will deceive many. And
you
will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled, for
all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation
will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be
famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are
the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation
and kill you, and you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. And then
many will be offended, will betray one another and will hate one another.
Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness
will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the
end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in
all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come"
(Matt. 24:1-14).
Note
the occasion for this speech. The disciples called the Lord’s attention
to the buildings of the temple. He indicated that the time was coming when
all those buildings would be demolished. In their Jewish minds, they associated
the destruction of Jerusalem with the end of the world. They wanted to
know, when it would happen, and how they could know when it was about to
occur. Keep in mind that this is their question -- and that this question
about the destruction of Jerusalem is what Jesus is answering.
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Some good quotes taken from a new list offering such -- to subscribe write them at [email protected] --
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.
All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.
The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life.
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. - All today's qutoes are from Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, 1828 - 1910
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ANSWER: Micah gave a priest a suit of clothes every year -- Judges 17:10 -- "And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in."
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Good Morning: It's Sunday September 16, 2001!
BIRTHDAYS: Francis Parkman, 1823; J.C. Penney (American merchant and founder of the J.C. Penney Co.), 1875; H.A. Rey (children's author), 1898; Allen Funt, 1914; inventor Marvin Middlemark, 1919; Janis Paige, 1923; Lauren Bacall, 1924; B.B. King, 1925; John Knowles, 1926; Peter Falk, 1927; Ed Begley Jr., 1949; Robin Yount, 1955; David Copperfield, 1956; Orel Hershiser, 1958; Tim Raines, 1959.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1492 Columbus and his men first saw patches of seaweed in mid-ocean on their first voyage to America.
On this date in 1620 the Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, on the MAYFLOWER.
On this date in 1630 the little town of Shawmut, Massachusetts decided to change its name to Boston, and it's "bean" that ever since.
On this date in 1781 French Admiral Comte Francios de Grasse and his flotilla smashed a British squadron in Chesapeake Bay, shattering the last hope of British General Charles Cornwallis to escape the combined French and American forces that had his army trapped in Yorktown, Virginia. In one month, the port Cornwallis once had envisioned as the base for his conquest of Virginia would become the scene of his surrender.
On this date in 1787 printers prepared 500 copies of the Constitution for the official signing ceremony.
On this date in 1908 General Motors was founded by William Durant of Flint, Michigan.
On this date in 1919 Thomas Edison explained in a letter that he and his assistants worked in the lab about 18 hours each day.
On this date in 1926 Charles Lindbergh parachuted safely in Ottowa, IL when his airmail plane ran out of gas.
On this date in 1981 Sugar Ray Leonard retained his welterweight title by knocking out Thomas Hearns in the 14th round of their Las Vegas boxing match.
On this date in 1983 "Webster" premiered on ABC TV.
On this date in 1984 "Miami Vice" premiered on NBC.
On this date in 1987 24 nations signed the "Montreal Protocol." This agreement was designed to save the earth's ozone layer by urging nations to curb harmful emissions.
On this date in 1988 the Summer Olympics began in Seoul, South Korea.
MEANINGLESS FACTS: The Callander House, near Stirling, Scotland, was granted to Lord Livingston by King James VI because 2 daughters of the Monarch had been "Paying Guests" in Lord Livingston's house -- and King James didn't have the cash to pay their board bill... Mike Kim of Honolulu, in the belief that it would restore his waning eyesight, laboriously copied and translated the Bible into Korean by hand -- the task required 18 months... The boat carrying coal to light the newly erected lighthouse of St. Agnes on the Scilly Isles, England for the first time hit the lighthouse in the darkness and was wrecked on October 30, 1680. Believe it, or not.
TRIVIA: Where (in the Bible) are sealskin shoes mentioned?
Here are some thoughts on prayer from "Quotes of the Day" [email protected]
Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God. - John Bunyan, 1628 - 1688
The fewer the words, the better the prayer. - Martin Luther, 1483 - 1546
Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. - Mohandas Gandhi
Our prayers are answered not when we are given what we ask but when we are challenged to be what we can be. - Morris Adler
Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. - Victor Hugo, 1802 - 1885
I don't know of a single foreign product that enters this country untaxed, except the answer to prayer. - Mark Twain
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CHECK THE HOT PLACE
H.L. Johns, a Methodist minister, had a daughter named Helen Hope. When Helen Hope was a little girl, so the story goes, she found an umbrella in the church vestibule. The following Sunday, H.L. Johns announced from the pulpit -- "My daughter has found a black umbrella in the vestibule. So if you've lost a black umbrella, you can go to Helen Hope for it."
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TOO MUCH INFORMATION...
Three preachers went fishing. They were out in a boat most of the day and got to be good friends. Soon they began confiding personal matters and problems they had in their congregations. After a while, one of them said, "We all have our weaknesses. Let's tell ours. I confess that I take a little nip now and then."
The second one said, "I like to look at the women."
They turned expectantly to the third, who said, "I like to tell tales, and I can't wait to get to shore."
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GOOD DEAL
A man and his son went to church, and when they came out the man was complaining that the service was too long, the preacher no good, and the singing off-key. Finally the little boy said, "Daddy, I thought it was pretty good for a dime."
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COMMANDMENTS
The preacher was teaching the men's Sunday school class on the subject of the Ten Commandments. When he discussed "Thou Shalt Not Steal," a man on the front row became distracted and agitated, but when he got to "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery," he relaxed and started paying attention again. The preacher saw the man after class and asked if anything was wrong.
"Oh, no, Preacher, it's all right. When you mentioned the one about stealing, I got upset because I thought somebody had taken my umbrella, but when you got to the other one about adultery, I remembered where I left it."
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OUT OF PLACE
A man was going down the road one day when he met an old friend, all dressed up from head to toe, and he had a Bible under his arm.
He asked him, "Where are you going?"
The man's friend replied: "Going down to Atlanta. I been hearing about the sporting houses down there, with all them good-looking women, and I aim to have me a good time!"
The man said, "Well, if you're going to the sporting houses, how come you're carrying a Bible?"
His friend replied, "If them sporting houses are as interesting as I hear tell, I may just stay over till Sunday."
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REALLY???
The preacher had just delivered what he thought was a very good sermon when several of the congregation rushed up to him and were congratulating him. One lady gushed, "Preacher, every sermon you preach is better than the next one!"
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Dr. Carl Hurley (from LOOKING FOR THE HUMOR, audio recording, Louisville: McKinney Associates, 1987), told the following:
"We wanted to have a masquerade party. We said, 'Other people are having them, they sound like fun, and we'd never had one.'
So we met in a fellow's house; he lived way out a country road. We were goin' to meet out there and have that party. Well, I dressed up like the devil, put on a little red devil outfit, little horns and everything, and I was goin' out the road at night, when a storm came up, and I needed a place to get in out of the weather. I darted in a little building there beside the road, and it just so happened, it was a little country church, and they were right in the midst of a big revival meetin'. You can imagine what a commotion it caused when I jumped up in the door with my devil outfit on! Then went out doors, windows, anyplace they could get out. One fellow right up toward the front jumped up, got his coattail hung on the seat, and couldn't get away. He threw up both arms and said, 'I've been a member of this church for 25 years, but I've been on your side all along!'"
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ANSWER: Sealskin shoes are mentioned in the RV of Ezekiel 16:10 -- "I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with sealskin,..." The margin gives, "porpoise-skin," and the AV has, "badgers' skin."
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Good Morning: It's Monday September 17, 2001!
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We have not forgotten the horrible loss of life sustained by our nation in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The images and sounds will live with us as long as we ourselves live. As we make our ways to the various destinations we have set for ourselves today, and as life goes on for us OUR PRAYERS AND BEST WISHES ARE WITH THOSE HURTING. MAY GOD BLESS OUR NATION AND ALL MEN WITH PEACE AND HOLINESS.
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BIRTHDAYS: Baron Von Steuben (German soldier who helped the Americans in the Revolutionary War), 1730; Warren Burger (U.S. Supreme Court chief justice), 1907; Mary Steward (children's author), 1916; Roddy McDowall, 1928; Anne Bancroft, 1931; Dorothy Loudon, 1933; Ken Kesey, 1935; David Souter, 1939; Phil Jackson, 1945; cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, 1947; John Ritter, 1948; Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, 1951; Anthony Carter, 1960.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1787 the U.S. Constitution was completed and signed.
On this date in 1796 George Washington "gave" his farewell speech. Actually, he never "delivered" it -- he wrote and dated it for today and had it published September 19, 1796.
On this date in 1911 C. P. Rogers began the first transcontinental airplane flight from New York to Pasadena. It wasn't exactly a non-stop express; it took over 82 hours!
On this date in 1920 the American Professional Football Association - forerunner of the NFL - was formed in Canton, Ohio.
On this date in 1930 New York governor Alfred E. Smith laid the cornerstone for the Empire State Building.
On this date in 1948 a Kansas City feed-supply company conducted an informal poll in the presidential race between incumbent Harry S Truman and Thomas E. Dewey. Farmers "voted" by picking feed sacks decorated with party symbols: donkeys for Democrat Truman; elephants for Republican Dewey. With 20,000 sacks sold and Truman ahead, the poll was abandoned as "too improbable" and contrary to scientifically conducted polls. Hmm...
On this date in 1967 the television program "Mission Impossible" premiered.
On this date in 1986 William Rehnquist was confirmed as Chief Justice by a vote of 65 - 33. This was the highest "negative" vote ever received by a confirmed justice. Antonin Scalia, equally 'conservative', was confirmed 98 - 0 after only about 5 minutes of debate on the same day.
MEANINGLESS FACTS: In a period of 13 years the Sixth Earl of Seafield (1772-1853) was said to have planted 31,686,482 trees... Thomas Telford (1757-1834), in a period of 18 years, built 1117 bridges in Scotland and 1000 miles of roads... "Mathe", the pet greyhound of King Richard III of England, on the day the monarch was captured in the castle of Flint ran to his master's bitter rival -- the Earl of Lancaster -- and licked his hand. The dog was the first follower of King Richard to switch allegiance to the Earl -- who became King Henry IV. Believe it, or not.
TRIVIA: Are "hats" ever mentioned in the Bible?
Here is a "thinker" on thinking and doing -- "In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action." - Aristotle
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BIBLE (William Cullen
Bryant)
Truth, crushed to earth, shall
arise again,
The
eternal years of God are hers;
But error, wounded, writhes
in pain,
And
dies among his worshippers.
Would man but grasp, with focused
powers of mind
The
subtle laws that rule the finer realm,
Abandoning the lesser aims
that blind,
The
grosser joys that dull and overwhelm.
This dawning century would
bring to light
The
deepest truths for which we vainly grope;
Would open up new worlds to
human sight,
In
large fulfilment of our biggest hope.
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"A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable or dangerous to do so" (Walter Lippmann).
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THE BOOK OUR MOTHERS READ (John Greenleaf Whittier)
We search the world for truth,
we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful,
From graven stone and written
scroll,
From all old flower-fields
of the soul,
And, weary seeker for the
best,
We come back laden from our
quest,
To find that all the sages
said
Is in the Book our mothers
read.
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"I believe it is the nature of people to be heroes, given the chance" (James A. Autry).
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HOW MUCH IS THAT OLD BIBLE WORTH? (From WATER FOR DRY WELLS, ed. John Stacy)
Some time ago an old man living in New Jersey discovered about $5,000 in a family Bible. The bank notes were scattered throughout the book. In 1874 the aunt of this man had died and one clause of her will was as follows: "To my beloved nephew, Stephen Marsh, I will and bequeath my family Bible and all it contains." He did not discover the money until 35 years later!
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"Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth" (Will Rogers).
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Here is one from one of my favorite Poets:
Patriot by L. B. Strawn - Copyright
1976 [email protected]
Two centuries ago our nation
was born---
To fight to the finish our
forefathers had sworn,
And now, over many a patriot's
grave
We can sing, "Land of the
free and home of the brave".
They gave this heritage to
everyone,
Using sword and cannon and
musket gun;
Marching o'er fields where
blood ran red,
Over the bodies of comrades,
dead.
In summer's humid and stifling
heat--
Mostly forward and seldom
retreat.
In dreaded cold of winter's
snow;
Always onward to meet the
foe.
In hunger, in thirst, with
battle wound,
In agonizing strife, with
scarcely a sound
Of complaint o'er the lot
of a soldier, brave,
Marching onward into many
a grave.
Often weary or fevered and
ill,
Lack of clothing against winter's
chill,
Lack of munitions, with which
to fight,
But, fight they did, with
all of their might.
Some gave their wealth but
gained their fame,
And, with all who fought,
gained a name.
"Patriot!" It rings, as it
flies through the land.
"Patriot!" Wonderful name,
so grand.
That's right!! They gave for
you and me;
Died that America might be
free.
Let's vow to keep it that
way--you and I.
And, for this great land,
be willing to die.
"Patriot!!" Are we worthy of
the name?
"Patriot!!" Like those of
old, are we the same?
Would we uphold their traditions,
true?
I know that I would---would
you????
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"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave" (John Calvin Coolidge, 1872 - 1933).
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ANSWER: Yes, hats are mentioned in the Bible; in Daniel 3:21 we read, "Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats,..." The margin has "turbans".
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Gradowiths
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